Staff Writer

The typical checklist for a hockey player traveling to a tournament reads something like this: equipment, jerseys, skates, clean clothes, socks, shoes, toiletries and meal money.

Some players bring an assortment of electronics, such as MP3 players, cellphones, laptop computers or portable DVD players, while others bring pillows and blankets.

But if you`re crossing an international border, even just to play hockey, a birth certificate and a government-issued form of photo identification are musts.

In other words, paperwork. Don`t leave home without it.

Such is the case for the Miramichi Valley High boys` hockey team, which traveled from New Brunswick to southern Maine to participate in the Maine High School Hockey Invitational.

Miramichi Valley is one of eight teams from the provinces of New Brunswick, Quebec and Nova Scotia participating in the tournament, along with 37 teams from seven U.S. states. Monday at the Portland Ice Arena, Miramichi Valley played its final two games of the round-robin exhibition tournament and planned to return today to New Brunswick.

A.J. McKay, a grade 10 defenseman for Miramichi Valley, didn`t expect so many teams in the tournament, particularly the number of Canadian teams.

``I didn`t think that anyone would come down to a tournament like this, a tournament with no finals,`` McKay said. ``It`s surprising.``

Teams from Canada began playing in the invitational in 2003, two years after it began with 14 teams at the Portland Ice Arena.

In the first two days of the five-day tournament, the eight teams from Canada -- Miramichi Valley, Hampton, L`Odyssee, Moncton and Leo Hays of New Brunswick; Avon View and Halifax West of Nova Scotia; and Pro Action Hockey of Quebec -- had an overall record of five wins and two losses.

``The Canadian teams up there in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, a lot of those kids go play juniors,`` said tournament chairman Gary Prolman.

``They`re so far up north that no one goes up and looks at them. We talk all the time about all the exposure that our guys get in this tournament, but the coaches from Canada know that their kids need to be seen.

``They`re playing high school hockey there. It`s as much about exposure for them as it is for us.``

On Dec. 26, many of their classmates, friends and neighbors were either sleeping in or preparing for Boxing Day, a bank holiday in Canada that is a major retail shopping day on both sides of the border.

But the Miramichi Valley hockey team, nicknamed Pulamoo (Micmac for ``salmon``), loaded up the bus and drove eight hours to Portland.

At the border, where Provincial Route 95 becomes Interstate 95, was a required stop at the Houlton checkpoint, where each player was required to produce documentation of his Canadian citizenship.

One by one, customs agents checked each player`s paperwork. The process, McKay said, was slow. Teammate Robert Gallant agreed.

``We must have spent an hour at the border crossing,`` said Gallant, a defenseman.

And being 15 years old, McKay needed another piece of paperwork: a permission slip signed by his parents that allowed him to travel on a school-sponsored trip.

At the border crossing, Gallant said several of his teammates did not have the proper paperwork and were advised by U.S. customs agents to obtain passports, birth certificates and government-issued identification before June.

That`s when U.S. Customs and Border Protection will require travelers to have a single secure document, such as a passport, to cross the U.S.-Canada border.

Gallant wasn`t among those who needed to heed the warning.

``I brought my passport,`` Gallant said. ``I`ve been coming here for three years to this tournament, so I was ready.``

Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:

rlenzi@pressherald.com