The real fun of weekend number one of Silver Stick play began once the round robin games were done.
Sure, there were some of the seven divisions of “A” hockey that remained true to form in moving from preliminary round action to the elimination games, but upsets and surprises were almost equally mixed in.
Exhibit A: the U11 A Division.
With twelve teams divided into four pools of three, the format called for all 12 teams to make the playoffs, playing their fourth game of the tournament, in a worse-case scenario, as a play-in playoff game.
Given the above, a 1-1-1 record for the Copper Cliff Reds which included a relatively slow start for the team which already had a tournament final appearance in Halton Hills this fall under their belts hardly sounded a death knell.
Seeded eighth but confident in their match-up with the Porcupine Jr Gold Kings (#1), the Reds needed double overtime to earn a 2-1 victory in a contest in which they enjoyed a notable territorial advantage.
“We were controlling games but we just weren’t scoring,” noted head coach Richard Spadafora, at the helm of a team that returns five underage players from the 2023-2024 Copper Cliff U11 A Reds, along with a gathering of talent from four or five remaining teams.
Thankfully, early season practices have allowed the coaching staff to work on parts of the game that will help keep encounters close, even when pucks are not finding the back of the net. “We’re fortunate enough to have a group of kids who had been exposed to structure and where their skill sets were above average for this level of hockey,” said Spadafora.
“Our defense-first mentality got us through this weekend. We didn’t put up a pile of goals through the first six games, so getting the kids to buy-in to the idea that defense creates offense was important.”
Having dodged one bullet, the Reds continued to find ways to win the close ones, edging the North Bay Trappers 2-1 (QF) and the Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds 3-2 (SF) before blitzing Nickel City 6-1 in a championship game rematch.
There was no doubt in the mind of Spadafora and the remaining coaches that the second place finish in Halton Hills provided a silver lining, in more ways than one. “We had the experience of losing in that final and the kids were really let down,” he said. “We leveraged that message, knowing the kids didn’t want that feeling again.”
“The message was to have that drive to want to win battles and foot races and create pressure on the opponents in both the offensive zone and our defensive zone as well,” said Spadafora. The end result was a 3-0 lead before the game was five minutes old and a trip to Sarnia for International Silver Stick in January.
The roster for the 2024-2025 Copper Cliff U11A Reds is as follows: Caleb Shydlowsky, Cameron Vaillancourt, Colby Beeson, Connor Peters, Etson Bigras, Grayson Quesnele, Hayden Rehel, Hudson Meunier, Jake Granger, Loucas Couture, Maverick Spadafora, Max Clark, Taisto Saikkonen, Tate Jessop, Ty Vaillancourt, Weston Bertrand and Yanik Larouche.
Joining Spadafora on the team staff are assistant coaches Josh Bigras, Jairus Quesnele, Brad Bertrand, Dave Clark, trainer Trevor Jessop and team manager Vanessa Rehel.
The one remaining local team that walked off with a championship banner this weekend – the Nickel City U13 A Cubs – were certainly favoured, by contrast, entering the quarter-finals of their 14 team pool with a record of 3-0-0 and a +25 goal differential.
All of which did not stop them from receiving a scare from the Copper Cliff Reds, surviving the quarter-finals with a 4-2 win and closing off their run with victories over both Sault Winmar (4-1 – SF) and the Kapuskasing Ice Hawks (7-3 in final).
Benefitting from a nice influx of houseleague talent, many of whom knew each other from the Walden – Coniston rivalry of one year ago, the Cubs quickly grasped the areas of their game that could be exploited for team success.
“Our coach knows that we’re just a faster team, in general,” noted forward Jones Paajanen, a grade 7 student at Lively DSS who joined teammates Aiden Dupuis and Parker Roy as two goal scorers in the final. “We would always take it to the outside and the defencemen couldn’t stop us.”
“That led to a lot of our goals – and we were always getting rebounds in front of the net,” Paajanen added. “We were relentless and moving the puck really well.”
Securing a trip to the International Silver Stick in January, along with their trio of teammates above, were Carter Chenier, Jonah Gervais, Jeremy Clouthier, Tyler Racine, Ethan Paquet, Jace St-Marseille, Luca Gauthier, Jason Marcotte, Gavin Mitchell, Elliot Sanche, Cohen Wabano, Kaleb Salem, Nash Gauthier and Logan Peltier.
The team staff features head coach Yves Gervais as well as assistant coaches Steven Fraser and Noah Sanche.
While the Sudbury U12 Wolves came up short in the final against the East Nipissing Vipers, blanked 2-0, it was a given that it was going to be tough to match the excitement of their semi-final triumph earlier in the day.
The Wolves entered the semis without a win to their credit (0-3-1), facing a Stittsville Rams’ entry that had not yet suffered a loss (3-0-1). A dramatic 2-1 victory propelled them to the championship affair, even if a second straight upset was not meant to be.
In fact, there was plenty of heartbreak to go around for local entries who did not quite make it to the gold medal games.
The Kanata U14A Blazers went to double overtime to fend off the Nickel City Cubs after earning four ties in as many games in round robin play, only to then win it all, doubling the Leitrim Hawks 4-2 in the final. Liam Boileau snapped a 2-2 tie with 1:09 left to play, netting his second goal of the game on the power-play, sending the Blazers home happy.
The five team U10 bracket was home to a number of hotly-contested affairs as the Sault Jr Knights topped the Copper Cliff Reds on Sunday morning (3-1), moving on to the grand finale opposite North Bay Action Family Trappers (who eliminated the Sudbury Wolves 3-2 in overtime), with the Trappers walking off with northern bragging rights thanks to a 5-4 win.
The Woodstock Jr Navy Vets slipped past the Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds 3-2 in overtime, forcing the extra session thanks to a game-tying goal with under two minutes to play in a U15 A final four battle, carrying the momentum over into a 2-0 triumph over the Stittsville Rams.
Nik Murray and Aiden Scheltema handled the scoring with Liam Liu recording the shutout between the pipes for Woodstock.
And finally, in a division that included no local representation, the U18 A grouping featured not a single team that went 3-0-0 as the
Jesse Litt drilled home a pair of tallies and added a couple of assists as the Gold Kings chopped down the Lumber Kings 7-4, closing the books on a wonderful weekend of hockey – especially once the elimination games began.