You hear about it so often in the hockey world – the importance of home-ice advantage. But it is really so important?

Sure, there is a certain peace of mind that comes from playing important games in front of family, friends and hometown fans, but does all that attention help with the pressure, or just add to it?

Since the inception of Canada’s National Midget Championship in 1974, only four teams – the 1976 Calgary Spurs, 1984 North Bay Pine Hill, 1990 Riverains du Richelieu and 1991 Calgary Northstars – have been able to win a national title on their rink. 

It’s not as if host teams have had no success; they’ve also won five silver medals and four bronze, but 28 of the first 41 teams to welcome the nation have failed to set foot on the podium.

But why?

“I guess you can say there’s a little bit more pressure on you as a team, but as an individual you just need to go out and play and not focus on that outside environment as much,” says Kyle Reynolds, who helped the Red Deer Rebels get as close as a host team could to gold in 2007, losing in double overtime in the final.

“I don’t know if there’s additional pressure in playing at home,” adds Edmonton Oilers forward Matt Fraser, a teammate of Reynolds with the 2007 Rebels. “Every team enters the tournament with high expectations and wanting to win.

“There’s a lot of pressure that naturally comes from the fact that it’s a national championship and you’re playing against the best players on the best teams from the other leagues.”

There is something to home-ice advantage, though, and Reynolds and Fraser both admit there were plenty of positives attached to playing host.

They’d know, too; Red Deer lost just one game on home ice at the “intimate” Red Deer Arena during the 2006-07 season, to Prince Albert in the TELUS Cup preliminary round. It dropped the national final to the Mintos at the much-larger Centrium.

“That year, we hadn’t lost a game at home before losing to Prince Albert in the tournament’s round robin,” Reynolds – who was top scorer of the 2007 tournament – says. “You get added confidence from knowing the environment you’re playing in and knowing that you can win in it as well. It was a huge advantage for us.”

“It was nice to have home-cooked meals, to sleep in our own beds and to have the home rink advantage and everything like that,” Fraser says. “But I also think that in those national tournaments, it’s fun to get away and to be immersed in the event somewhere else.”

But back to the risks, and the downfall of most host teams.

For many, it’s just a matter of not matching up with the country’s best. Teams that qualify for the TELUS Cup get hot at the right time, winning league and regional titles. Most hosts don’t have that run of success.

“Some host teams can turn out to be not as strong as the others there,” Reynolds says. “Because you’re given somewhat of a free ride to the championship, I can see how that can hinder teams a little bit.”

“If you’re a hometown boy who grew up around there, you can end up putting pressure on yourself,” Fraser adds. “But I think there are so many good teams and players at that tournament – even guys that I still play against nowadays – that it’s normal for it to be so hard to win.”

So what does it take to win? Reynolds and Fraser have a few key pieces of advice.

“Avoid the outside distractions as best you can,” Reynolds says. “Like in every big tournament, there are a lot of activities going on and you can’t lose focus. You need to pay attention to your team’s needs, enjoy the moment, and stay focused on what you need to do to win.”

“It sounds kind of weird now but it was a way of developing a winning attitude,” adds Fraser. “For some it’ll be the biggest stage they ever play on, while some others will graduate to bigger things.”

This year, it’s the Albatros du Collège Notre-Dame’s turn to try and reverse the curse, and end 24 years of host team heartbreak at Canada’s National Midget Championship.

They’ve got a one-in-six chance to be champions. It can’t be that hard, right?