Minor hockey mayhem strikes area arenas

With three NOSSA championships, three separate hockey tournaments, a high school basketball tournament, six AAA bantam hockey games and an assortment of other contests on the go last weekend, it’s easy to see why Nov. 20 to 22 might well rank as the busiest pre-Christmas stretch in local sports.

With that in mind, I’ve devoted this week’s local sports column to catching you up with some of the hockey results you may have missed.

Over the past few years, the high school boys hockey scene has been dominated by the St. Charles/Lasalle combo, with the Cards and Lancers accounting for all of the past 10 regular season and playoff championships.

Things may be different this time around. The Lo-Ellen Park Knights made an early season statement in Walden on Sunday, knocking off both of the New Sudbury schools, en route to winning the first Lively Invitational banner in the school’s history.

Semi-final play Sunday morning saw the Knights double the Cards 4-2 as Mark Randa, Collin Lammi, Tanner Negusanti and Jace Lee scored for the victors. Shawn Stevens and Chris Hayes replied in a losing cause.

The remaining semi-final featured an outstanding goaltending battle, as the Lancers blanked the Espanola Spartans 2-0 behind the netminding of Danny Fong. Paul Charette and Alex Hartle managed to beat Spartans’ goaltender Jason Paibomcowai, generally recognized as the top puck-stopper in the league this year.

In the final, Lo-Ellen and Lasalle contested a scoreless first period, with Chris Fisch netting the only goal of the second. Things opened up considerably in the third as Randa netted a hat trick, with Brandon Legault answering for Lasalle, giving the Knights a 4-1 lead late in the game.

But Lancers Taylor Couillard and Paul Charette scored 33 seconds apart, and the Lasalle team frantically pressed for the equalizer in the final minute, only to fall one goal short as Lo-Ellen edged Lasalle 4-3.

Off to the Garson Arena, where the annual novice/atom Nickel Centre Minor Hockey Association tournament was being held. More great finals as a mere two goals marked the largest differential seen in the three championship encounters.

The novices set the tone as the Temiscaming Shores Grant Fuels Puckhounds outlasted the Valley East Rebels 6-5. Kean Chartrand paced the Hounds’ attack with a four-goal effort, including the game-winner with under four minutes to play.

Hunter Foreshew added the remaining two goals while the Rebels featured a much more balanced offensive output. Nikolas Lebuis, Bryce Brunet, Patrick Gagnon, Joshua Menard and Colton Blay scored one goal apiece for the Valley boys.

There was more drama and excitement in the minor atom gold-medal game and plenty to cheer about for the hometown folks. Logan Davidson scored his second goal of the game for the Nickel Centre team with 4:08 remaining, and just over a minute after Brett Jacklin had tied the game at two, allowinging the Nickel Centre Flyers to slip past the Sudbury Bulldogs 3-2. Tommy Vlahos scored the other Flyers’ goal, with Mathieu Garon opening the scoring in the first period for the Bulldogs.

A second championship banner found its way north to the Tri-Towns area as the Temiscaming Shores Wilson Chevrolet Puckhounds captured the major atom crown, blanking the Walden Devils on goals from Cade Herd and Calvin Chartrand.

Finally, I closed off the Sunday afternoon craziness with a jaunt out to the Edgar Leclair Community Centre in Azilda as the Rayside Tiger house league hockey tournament was wrapping up the championship game.

And what a concluding game it was as Martin Blais broke a 1-1 tie with just 2:29 remaining, lifting the Rayside-Balfour Howlers past the Schumacher Werewolves 2-1 in the midget final.
Schumacher game MVP Aaron Mailloux opened the scoring in the first period, with Jessie Poliquin drawing the Howlers even just 90 seconds later. From there, it was all about netminders Eric Carriere (Rayside) and Steven Pollak (Schumacher), as the pair stymied opposing shooters at every opportunity.

There was more drama and excitement in the minor atom gold-medal game and plenty to cheer about for the hometown folks.

The Onaping Falls Huskies scored a pair of goals in the final three minutes, breaking open a tight 1-0 game en route to a 3-0 win over the Copper Cliff Braves in the novice championship tilt.

Owen Guse scored a pair of goals for the Huskies, Nick Charron added a single and Paige Perron chalked up the shutout, as the Onaping Falls crew enjoyed a strong weekend. It was a seesaw battle in the atom final as the Nickel Centre Jets blasted out to a 4-1 first period lead, only to see the Sudbury Wolf Pack draw even at four with 20 minutes in the books.

But Blake Bottrell came to the rescue for the Jets, picking up his fourth goal of the game in the third as Nickel Centre tripped up the Wolf Pack 5-4. Justin Gibeault also scored for the Jets, while Joel Guenette, Shawn Belanger, Alex Lemieux and Kaleb Mikic supplied the offensive punch for Sudbury.

The Barrie SAE peewees avenged a 5-1 round robin loss to the Sudbury Thunder, blanking the hometown crew 5-0 with the hardware on the line. Tommy Lee recorded a hat trick for Barrie SAE — one of two teams to head north for this event — while Nicholas Wallwin added a pair of markers.

Finally, in the Bantam matchup, the Copper Cliff Eagles blanked the Valley East Renegades 2-0, a much more low scoring affair than the 6-4 shootout that took place when the teams hooked up in preliminary round robin play.

Mathieu Roy gave the Braves an early lead, scoring just 26 seconds in, with a second period power play goal from Nicholas Tubin, providing all the insurance Copper Cliff would need.

Randy Pascal is the voice of Eastlink Sports and the founder of SudburySports.com.