Going for the Cup

Mark Messier wants one more shot at the Stanley Cup, and unlike his Edmonton Oilers and New York Rangers heyday, this time he’s willing to share.

Messier, the former cup-winning captain and fully entrenched hall-of-famer, has paired with TSN for the Team Up to Bring Home the Cup, and the Westfort Atom A Dynamix Machine Shop Rangers want to win.

By voting for them, a lucky fan could win a trip to a 2010 Stanley Cup Final game.

Rangers coach Glenn Clausen said he got his team involved in the contest as a way to show his players the importance of giving back to the community.

As part of the contest participating teams must submit a video or written essay explaining why they are worthy of being voted for.

"The first tag we had this year, the people of Thunder Bay were so generous to us, so we started thinking what could we do to give back to them. So we had our kids volunteer. On Remembrance Day they wrote letters to soldiers in Afghanistan and then at Christmas they volunteered for the Salvation Army Kettle campaign," Clausen said.

Ten-year-old Selena Owen, a forward on the team, really wants to meet Mark Messier, even though he had retired by the time she reached kindergarten.

"We worked really hard," Selena said of her team, which started slowly on the ice, but managed to win a tournament in Minneapolis last month.

And it wasn’t just on the ice where their talent shone, she added.

"I wrote the letter to the solider because they were at war and they couldn’t see their families. We really wanted to cheer them up and stuff," Selena said.

Nine-year-old blue-liner Austin Dunn said he hopes the people of Thunder Bay will help his team secure the necessary votes. Last year’s winner, a team from Quebec, corralled about 200,000 in the inaugural contest.
"We’d really like to bring the Cup to Thunder Bay," he said.

To vote, visit teamup.tsn.ca. After registering, one can vote once per hour between now and the April 17 end of the contest. Ironically the players themselves, nine- and 10-year-olds, can’t vote. The minimum age requirement is 13.