It took a couple of big hits here and there, but James Gemmell did settle into his role as a stay-at-home defenceman with the Canadian national sledge hockey team.
Along the way, Gemmell found confidence in himself, earned the confidence of his coaches and collected a gold medal at the World Sledge Hockey Challenge in Calgary earlier this month.
Gemmell, admitted he was a bit nervous to begin with, but a couple of big bodychecks early in the first game of the tournament against Japan, helped settle him down.
“I went into the first game, against the Japanese team with a little bit of nerves,” Gemmell said.
“I went out and threw a couple of big hits to start the game and I started feeling better and better as the game went on.”
The game against the Japanese, an 8-0 win for Canada, also included a first for Gemmell at the international level, a penalty.
The call, for interference, left Gemmell with a sinking feeling, having put his team at a disadvantage.
“It was a bad call,” he said shaking his head, as he went through the details of what happened on the ice that sent him to the penalty box.
“It sucks sitting over there in the penalty box for two minutes hoping your team is going to kill it.”
Even though Team Canada is very good on the penalty kill and they handily held off the Japanese powerplay, Gemmell still felt bad about the call.
“When my penalty was over I went straight to the bench and apologized to everyone,” Gemmell said.
As the tournament continued, Gemmell continued to play his game, a physical game and with every shift he said he could feel his confidence growing.
Gemmell’s confidence translated into strong play and Team Canada coaches began tapping his shoulder more often and in tough situations, including penalty killing.
“Come the gold medal match the coaches were sending me out in all situations, even when we were shorthanded in the third period.”
Given it was the gold medal match, against arch-rival Team USA, being asked to hit the ice to kill a penalty is definitely a vote of confidence.
“It definitely makes me feel like I’m a part of the team getting put out there in pressure situations,” Gemmell said.
To top it off, the gold medal match against the Team USA saw Canada fall behind 1-0 less than one minute into the game.
“They got a lucky one on us, they scored from behind the goal line,” Gemmell said of the lucky bounce for Team USA.
Despite being behind early in the game, Gemmell saw plenty of action and Team Canada stuck to their game plan against a team Gemmell described as really quick.
Team Canada’s plan was simple, outwork Team USA.
Team Canada evened up the game late in the first period and then took control of the game in the second and third period when Team USA began to wane under the relentless pressure from Team Canada.
“We just kept plugging away, pushing and pushing,” Gemmell said of Team Canada’s strategy.
“As the game went on we started to hem them in and we started controlling much of the play.
“We stay at the same energy level the whole game.”
Gemmell credits Team Canada coaches and staff for the team’s success, pointing to their emphasis on conditioning as an important key to the win over Team USA in the gold-medal match.
“I think we have better conditioning than the other teams for sure,” he said.
In addition to coming home with his third gold medal as a member of Team Canada, Gemmell also came home with a reminder of what turned out to be his personal tournament highlight, a pair of bodychecks during Canada’s 5-2 win over Norway in round robin action.
Both hits were leveled against veteran Norwegian player Rolf Pedersen, a player disliked by many players on the Canadian squad, Gemmell explained.
“I ended up throwing him into the boards pretty hard a couple of times and I ended up with a pick wound in my side,” Gemmell said pointing to his ribs to show where Pedersen had jabbed him with the pick end of his stick.
“Just as I was coming in, he stuck his picks out and caught me in the side.
“He likes to do that.”
Despite the pick wound and the hard work, Gemmell beams when sharing his experience at the World Sledge Hockey Challenge.
“It was a great tournament, definitely a lot of fun to do,” he said.
Gemmell and Team Canada are now preparing for the 2012 International Paralympic Sledge Hockey World Championships in Norway, slated for March 2012.
Part of that preparation includes a trip to Nagano, Japan, Jan. 16-22, to face Japan, Norway and South Korea in the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey Championship.
As with the championship in Calgary, Gemmell said he is going to Japan and Norway with one goal.
“I’m out there to prevent the other team from getting shots on our net,” he said earnestly.
“I don’t care about getting goals, I don’t care about getting assists.
“That’s what I’m there for, I take pride in stopping the other team.”
