Skill Ice Breakers

Sledge players Mino, Baker moving up to Team Ontario

Since strapping on the sled and taking up the sport with the North Bay Icebreakers sledge hockey team close to a decade ago, Jordan Mino and Eric Baker have come a long way.

Mino, 22, and Baker, 20, were selected for Team Ontario's 2011-12 sledge hockey team during tryouts in Huntsville earlier this month.

For Mino, who started playing sledge hockey in 2002, it will be his fourth season with Team Ontario's program, while Baker, who started in 2003, secured his spot again after first making Ontario's squad last season.

I love it," Baker said of the opportunity with the provincial program. It's the best thing, because it makes me better as a player just playing with people who are better. My read-and-react skills have really improved, my passing ability is a lot better and there is a lot more team-play stuff."

Baker and Mino have been on the ice two to three times per week with Icebreakers teammates this summer at Pete Palangio Arena, in part to prepare for the Team Ontario camp.

Mino has an additional goal in mind. He has received an invitation to Team Canada's national sledge hockey training camp in Barrie next month.

Mino, who has experience with Canada's national junior sledge program, has been on the cusp of earning a spot with Canada's senior national team for the past three seasons.

It's going to be different this year, simply because I feel as though I have a better chance of making the team," Mino said.

I've improved so much in the last few years and last season, it was just my awareness that needed some work and I've improved a lot on that."

Like Baker, getting the chance to play in Team Ontario's program has helped Mino continually improve as a player. Always able to move around the ice swiftly on his sled, he has become even quicker, can turn on a dime and is starting to get comfortable handling the puck near top speed.

I've improved phenomenally in a lot of my positional play and just my awareness on the ice," he said. My passing ability and just my overall play has improved a lot.

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