Winter sports season winding down across city

For many of the kids with the Sudbury Playground Hockey League (SPHL), the finals last weekend were their Olympic gold-medal game. Sure, there may not have been thousands of screaming fans in attendance and millions of others tuning in on TV to catch the games, but for the youngsters taking part, it might as well have been Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals.

The best of the lot came early Sunday afternoon at Carmichael Arena, as the Antwerp Leafs and McFarlane Lakers went into overtime to decide the Atom B SPHL title. Johnny Foisey (Antwerp) and Kolt Gour-Boyd (McFarlane) traded goals just nine seconds apart in the first period, but that would be the only scoring in regulation time. Playing three-on-three hockey, Adryan Heath netted the game winner as the Lakers picked up their only banner of the day, edging Antwerp 2-1.

The Atom A final provided a fitting cap to an undefeated season for the Westmount Wolverines as the New Sudbury powerhouse blanked Long Lake 3-0.

Steven Sagle scored a pair of goals, Jordan Loiselle sneaked one in between and Simon Wood chalked up the shutout, as the Wolverines ran the table. Westmount also nabbed top honours in the Novice Division A loop, thumping McFarlane 7-1 as Dylan Dumontelle lead the way with a hat trick.

Nick Marcoux added a pair of goals, Kalob Edwards and Jason Diotte chipped in with one each while Luca Nardi registered the only goal for the Lakers as Westmount continued to stock its trophy case.

In Novice Division B action, Tyler Dunn opened the scoring midway through the first, added an insurance marker early in the third, while goalie Emma Carniello made it stand with a whitewash as Riverdale slipped past Long Lake 2-0.

The day’s festivities closed out Sunday night at Countryside Arena with a pair of teams that asserted themselves late. In the Bantam A gold-medal encounter, Long Lake outscored Lo-Ellen 4-2 in the final frame, breaking open a 2-0 game and cruising to a 6-2 win.

Daniel Eddy enjoyed a three-goal effort, pacing the Long Lake crew, while Michael Gruntz, Alex Jibb and Curtis Williamson found the back of the net once each. Thomas Costello answered with a pair of goals in a losing cause for the Lo-Ellen squad.

It was a similar story line to the Bantam B finale as Algonquin scored five times in the third, upending Westmount 7-2. Dave Niro and Marco Presot helped power the offense with three and two goals respectively, while Evan Lielkalns and Stevana Mior rounded out the scoring for the victors.

Gabriel Carriere and Anthony Pomykala countered with one goal each for the Wolverines. Unfortunately, the Peewee finals could not be contested Sunday morning as planned, due to a mix-up with ice time in the Coniston Arena. These games are expected to be completed within the next week or so.

Of course, these were not the only championship teams being crowned in Greater Sudbury over the weekend.

For the second straight year, École Catholique Jean-Paul II played host to a “fair play” elementary basketball tournament for youngsters in Grade 6 and younger. The competition is co-ed in nature, with the added provision that all team rosters must contain more girls than boys.

A good, solid base of future high school basketball talent developed, and it was no huge surprise in the final as a pair of outstanding “feeder school” programs met Saturday afternoon.

The St. Denis Tigers, who have enjoyed success in several different sporting venues this year, doubled Jean-Paul II 44-22.

The Tigers’ lineup for this event included France Courtemanche, Michaela Thorpe, Gabrielle Huneault, Camille Godin, Justin Tubin, Katryna Rogerson, Imho Traoré, Nathan Fong, Noah Serré, Kyle Mallette and head coach Martin Nadeau.

This is also the time of year when NOHA championship hockey banners are up for grabs and the opening weekend of playdown action produced a local entry to all-Ontario competition.

A very successful 2009-2010 campaign, which saw the Copper Cliff Redmen Major Peewees trail only the Sudbury Minor Peewee AAA Wolves in league standings this year, continued to earn accolades for coach Kevin Beauchamp and company.

The Redmen cruised to their northern Ontario title in Timmins, downing the West Ferris Sports Blades (3-0), Timmins Mikey’s (5-3) and Sudbury Bulldogs (10-1), before crunching the host team in the final (10-0), earning a berth in the OHF championships next month.

The provincials are scheduled for the weekend of April 9 to 11, with London serving as host as the Jr. Knights join the Redmen along with three other entries in vying for a coveted OHF banner.

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