The ever-changing landscape of minor hockey in northern Ontario is definitely not limited to the AAA ranks - though at times it must surely appear to be that way to those on the outside looking in.
As the scope of the Nickel District Minor Hockey League has expanded notably in recent years, from what was not all that long ago almost exclusively a regional league limited to teams in just the Greater City of Sudbury to what now covers an area that includes the likes of Hearst, Kapuskasing and Chapleau, the year-end tournaments also have taken on a much different feeling.
In fact, the bulk of the former NDMHL AA championships have now been rolled directly into the NOHA Tournament of Champions schedule, with those playdowns taking place throughout the month of March, beginning on the weekend of March 17th to 19th.
In the case of the A loops, it looks like many local teams will be doing double duty, having competed these past few days locally but then heading off to TOCs in the upcoming weeks.
Bottom-line is where the NDMHL playoff weekend was once home to the awarding of more than a dozen banners, there were but four that were presented on Sunday at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.
For the happy recipients of those banners, however, little to nothing has changed.
In one of the most hotly contested divisions - not a single game was decided by more than two goals - the Nickel City U11 A Jr Sons - West edged the Northshore Thundercats 4-3 in the final as Fisher Lemieux, Cameron Desmarais, Tiao Gladu and Daxime Lacroix handled the scoring for the winners, with Landon Nyman (2) and Maron Laferriere replying for the Cats.
The Western Sons put together some of their best hockey of the season over the weekend, beating the Copper Cliff Reds 5-3 on Friday, playing to a 3-3 draw Saturday against Northshore and taking their NCHA rivalry game with a 3-1 win over the U11 A Jr Sons - East later in the day.
Come time for the finals, the youngsters were gradually garnering a better understanding of exactly how to protect a third period lead. “It’s not that difficult,” noted team captain Tiao Gladu. “You just have to be smart about it. We had already taken the lead so we didn’t need to get a goal, we just needed to dump it and chase it.”
Suiting up with Nickel City for the first time this year, the 10 year old grade five student at Alliance St-Joseph has definitely made an impression in earning the “C” on his jersey. “Every practice, I was always working hard, always trying,” said Gladu. “I wouldn’t stop skating and I would give it my all.”
And as is so often the case in these very close matchups, it’s always nice when a break or two come your way, as he suggested was the case on his goal late in period two. “I was going in on a breakaway and I tried going backhand but it hit his stick and then it hit my skate and went in,” recalled Gladu.
“I thought he was going to cover it so I was just about to turn around when it hit my skate.”
Where some NDMHL divisions enjoy a really good buy-in, right across the north, others remain a challenge. Coach Steve Anstey and the Nickel City U13 A Jr Sons came out on top of a three team grouping that included just the Manitoulin Panthers and Sudbury Timberwolves – this despite the fact that no less than ten NOHA U13 “A” teams will make their way to Sturgeon Falls for TOCs later this month.
Still, the more modest field did not prohibit the Sons from emerging with a positive takeaway Sunday in Sudbury.
“My message to the kids was that this was step one of three,” said Anstey, the morning after his team blanked the Panthers 3-0, with their sights now set on the Renegades Tournament locally in two weeks and the Tournament of Champions one week later. “For us, it was all about building blocks.”
Kayden Tonin broke open a scoreless game with just under five minutes to play in the middle stanza and Lucas Rocca and Alex Martin provided third period support for goaltender Nick Paquette as the Sons got the better of the only team to knock them off in regular season play.
“This was the culmination of a lot of hard work for the kids,” said Anstey. “Everything that the staff preached for the past three or four months seemed to come together this weekend. As a coach, it’s what you want to see as the season wraps up.”
Yet another contrasting division as the U15 A bracket featured a total of seven teams, including entries from both Chapleau and South Porcupine. The championship final would see a much improved Sudbury Timberwolves team withstand a goal just 16 seconds into the game (Cameron MacIntosh), rallying in the final 15 minutes to secure a 3-1 win over the Nickel City U15 A Jr Sons.
“At the start of the season, that would have knocked us down,” noted defenseman Tyler Granthien, alluding to the early marker. After winning only two league games before Christmas, have now climbed the standings into fourth place in the eight team league (Kap/Hearst Regional Express did not participate in the weekend tournament), giving rise to a much different mindset as this event opened on Friday.
“We came in not over-confident, because there are some teams that are going to give us a pretty hard challenge – but we were confident that we could do pretty well,” said Granthien. The Timberwolves posted a record of 4-1-1, just enough to claim the banner this time around.
"I feel like we played really well in all aspects,” noted Granthien. “Our goalies were really good, our defense played good and we scored way more goals than we usually did.”
Finally, in a battle of teams that match-up pretty well, the Soo U16 AA Jr Greyhounds and the Nickel City Jr Sons met for the third time in three days on Sunday afternoon, having played to a 2-2 tie on Friday before the Lock City delegation trimmed the Sons 2-1 on Saturday.
No surprise then that the final was equally as close as the Soo jumped out to a 3-1 lead and held on for a 3-2 win, with Caleb Walker leading the way with a two-goal effort. Ethan Ferguson added a solo tally for the Greyhounds while Matti Jouppi and Cameron Seguin countered for the Sons.
