Las Vegas junior hockey team headed to Canada’s ‘Little League World Series’

Gretzky played in it, you know.

I’m talking about the Tournoi International de Hockey Pee-Wee de Quebec, this big international ice hockey tournament for 11- and 12-year-olds in Canada that starts Wednesday. Wayne Gretzky played in it, in 1974. The Great One. Back then he was just the Real, Real Good One.

Fellow Edmonton Oiler Paul Coffey, the prolific-scoring defenseman, also played in 1974. And Steve Larmer, who had five 40-plus-goal seasons for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Hockey Hall of Famer Brad Park played in the first one, in 1960.

Gil Perreault, Dale Tallon, Marcel Dionne, Guy Lafleur, Mark and Marty Howe, Mike Bossy, Denis Savard, Brett Hull, Pat LaFontaine, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Steve Yzerman, Ed Olczyk, Ron Tugnutt, who once made 70 saves for the home side Quebec Nordiques in an NHL game against the Bruins. Only the Lord saved more than Tugnutt in Boston Garden that night.

Eric Lindros, Rick Nash, Jason Zucker, from Bonanza High School right here in Las Vegas. Zucker skated with a team from Los Angeles in Quebec City in 2004 and ’05. Ten years later, he’s the second-leading goal scorer for the NHL’s Minnesota Wild with 18.

Dennis Maruk, who once lit the red lamp 60 times in one season for the Washington Capitals, played in it, too. Perhaps that was fitting; in the NHL, Maruk was known as Pee-Wee.

They all played in the Tournoi International de Hockey Pee-Wee de Quebec, which in Canada is sort of like the Little League World Series, only without Brent Musburger and free pouches of Big League Chew.

This year, the Las Vegas Junior Wranglers will play in it.

On Sunday afternoon, the local pint-sized goal snipers and hip checkers will face off against a team from Japan called Japan Select at Colisee Pepsi, where the great Jean Beliveau once skated with the Quebec Aces, and Guy Lafleur with the Quebec Remparts, before both were idolized as Montreal Canadiens. The first game of the 1974 Summit Series, USSR vs. Team Canada, was played at Pepsi Coliseum.

The former home of the World Hockey Association and NHL’s Nordiques (before they moved to Colorado and starting winning Stanley Cups as the Avalanche) is old and historic and cavernous, at least for hockey kids. It seats 15,176, which is roughly 15,000 more than Sobe Ice Arena at Fiesta Rancho, the Junior Wranglers’ home ice, sits.

So this is a big deal in multiple ways for the local hockey kids, says their coach, Eric Lacroix, who should know. Lacroix scored 18 goals for the Avalanche during the 1996-97 season, two years after the franchise relocated from Quebec City to Denver.

“It’s huge, it is so big,” said Lacroix, whose father, Pierre, was the Nordiques’ last general manager before the team moved south and started etching names onto Lord Stanley of Preston’s most acclaimed and venerable Cup under his watch. Eric’s mother and famous hockey father have a winter home at Lake Las Vegas.

Pierre Lacroix has been involved with the kids’ hockey tournament up there almost from the start, Eric said.

More than 2,300 young players representing 21 countries will be competing in this year’s Tournoi International de Hockey Pee-Wee de Quebec.

My money is on the Brandon Wheat Kings, of which I have heard, in the AA division. But watch out for the Halifax Mooseheads. Hockey teams in Canada named for moose usually are pretty hard-nosed and have a reputation for digging pucks out of corners.

Eric Lacroix, who spent seven seasons in the NHL, says he doesn’t know how many games the Junior Wranglers will win on the big frozen pond in Quebec City. The Las Vegas team will play in the fourth highest of the five brackets.

He said he and his assistant coaches, one of whom is former Las Vegas Thunder ace Ken Quinney, pick their team from a couple of dozen or so players.

The Brandon Wheat Kings and Halifax Mooseheads may choose theirs from 1,000 or more. But winning is immaterial, Lacroix said. This is a trip and a cultural experience the local pint-sized goal snipers and hip checkers won’t soon forget.

Teams from all over the world submit bids years in advance to play in the Tournoi International. Hundreds are turned down. Lacroix said it’s a big deal just to be selected.

The international players, and even the Canadians, reside with host families during their 10-day visit. They go tubing. They watch icicles form in beards and mustaches. After a few days, many learn how to say “two minutes for interference” in French — deux minutes pour ingérence — and may even begin spelling defenseman with a “c” instead of an “s.”

“The city gets behind it, the (host) families get behind it, the volunteers get behind it,” Lacroix said. “Of course, we want to win. But we just want to get in there and represent the city well, on and off the ice.”

So to reiterate, it’s huge and it’s a big deal “like that Little League thing in Pennsylvania,” Eric Lacroix said.

No, Brent Musburger won’t be on hand to drop the puck. But Gretzky and all those other guys with the missing teeth played in it, and I’m told select games will be shown on TV in Canada in two languages.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.