With eight championship encounters on the schedule for Sunday afternoon in Garson and Coniston, the Nickel Centre Minor Hockey Association (NCMHA) Houseleague Tournament defied the odds.

Incredibly, seven of the eight finals were decided by just a single goal, with many coming down to a shootout, or game-winning markers in the dying minutes of play.

The Novice "C" championship needed penalty shots to decide matters as Hayden Lloyd scored his second goal of the game, lifting the Gore Bay Bruins past the Rayside-Balfour Tigercats 4-3.

Similar story in the much older midget bracket, as an all-SMHA final would see Harry Smith play the hero, lifting the SMHA 80's Red Wings to a 3-2 win over the SMHA OPP Strike Force in a shootout.

Overtime was averted in the peewee final as Ty Parsons wristed home the winner with exactly one minute to play as the Nickel Centre Sting trimmed the Nickel Centre Ice Dogs 3-2 in a well-matched outing.

The Novice "B" lads did not wait quite that long, as Geret Lepage broke a 4-4 with 3:43 to play, giving the Onaping Falls Huskies a 5-4 triumph over the Sudbury Bulldogs.

The Atom "A" crew followed that script almost to perfection as Caleb Dakin buried his second goal of the game with 3:26 to play, sending a championship banner to Valley East as VE Central Printers slipped past the Nickel Centre Blast 3-2.

In Atom "B" play, Hayden Radey scored on the power-play in the second period, the goal standing as the winner as the Nickel Centre Sting tripped up the M'Chigeeng Thunderbirds 3-2.

A four-goal performance from Hayden Myre provided all the offense the Nickel Centre Blast would need to capture the Tyke banner, beating Valley East Tim Horton's 4-3.

In the only encounter that was not a nail-biter, the Nickel Centre Rocks received a three-goal effort from Justin Gibeault, outscoring Valley East Cousin Vinny's 7-0 in the bantam encounter.

Following is a breakdown of some of the game scores along with goal scorers for those games:

Initiation Game
Nickel Centre Rocks 10 (Ashton Pitawanakwat-5, Cole Bazinet-2, Nathan Gamey, Gavin Stuart, Andrew Michaud)
Nickel Centre Ice Dogs 9 (Tyler Third-5, Cameron Quesnel-2, Gavin Myre, Evan Bryant)

Tyke Division
Championship Final
Nickel Centre Blast 4 (Hayden Myre-4)
VE Tim Horton's 3 (Karsen Deschenes-2, Anthony Bertrand)

Consolation Final
Gore Bay Bruins 4 (Corbin Best-2, Greyson Orford-2)
Nickel Centre Rocks 2 (Domenic Michaud, Mackenzie Allissappi)

VE Tim Horton's 11 (Karsen Deschenes-4, Anthony Bertrand-3, Mason Robert, Isaac Jeanveau, Kylee Cresswell, Caleb Soucy)
Nickel Centre Sting 0

Nickel Centre Blast 9 (Hayden Myre-3, Owen Mainville-2, Hudson Fletcher, Nathan Radey, Cole Rosener, Owen Rajotte)
Nickel Centre Rocks 0

Novice "B" Division
Championship Final
Onaping Falls Huskies 5 (Drew McNeil-2, Brendan Roney, Logan Cosby, Geret Lepage)
Sudbury Bulldogs 4 (Felix St Onge-3, Reise Lapointe)

Consolation Final
Nickel Centre Blast 5 (Julien Levac-3, Gracie Boivin, Devan Madore)
Nickel Centre Rocks 2 (Parker Tilbury, Tanner Rollins)

Nickel Centre Rocks 4 (Liam Whitney, Jack Horsfall, Abby Parise, Tanner Rollins)
VE Premier Recycling 1 (Cole Robert)

Onaping Falls Huskies 5 (Tyler Roney, Drew MacNeil, Geret Lepage, Byron Montigny, Nicholas Duquette)
VE Premier Recycling 1 (Cole Robert)

Novice "C" Division
Championship Final
Gore Bay Bruins 4 (Hayden Lloyd-2, Avery Nodecker, Colton Chevrette)
Rayside-Balfour Tigercats 3 (Jacob Chouinard-2, Jacob Jones)

Gore Bay Bruins 1 (Elijah Lockeyer)
Valley East Renegades 0 (shutout Lucas Wright)

Rayside-Balfour Wildcats 7 (Tyler Findlay-3, Jacob Chouinard-2, Riyano Dasilva, Rylan Hayes)
Nickel Centre Ice Dogs 1 (Riley Lafantaisie)

Valley East Renegades 2 (Evan Lavallee, Christian Demore)
Rayside-Balfour Wildcats 2 (Rylan Hayes-2)

Valley East Renegades 6 (Evan Lavallee-3, Miles Schiewek-2, Brandon Raine)
Nickel Centre Ice Dogs 5 (Aaron Valentine-5)

Atom "A" Division
Championship Final
VE Central Printers 3 (Caleb Dakin-2, Noah Perreault)
Nickel Centre Blast 2 (Braedan Morin, Owen Parsons)

Consolation Final
Rayside-Balfour Wildcats 5 (Martin Charbonneau-2, Daniel Lukoff, Aiden Dionne, Cameron Bauer)
East Nipissing Vipers 1 (Cameron Campion)

Nickel Centre Blast 3 (Braedan Madore-2, Owen Pawluk)
East Nipissing Vipers 1 (Simon Culhane)

East Nipissing Vipers 2 (Teo Ryan, Cameron Campion)
Midland 0

Atom "B" Division
Championship Final
Nickel Centre Sting 3 (Colin Burrell, Matteo Raso, Hayden Radey)
M'Chigeeng Thunderbirds 2 (Dylan Corbiere-2)

Nickel Centre Sting 3 (Owen Myre-2, Blake Rosener)
Mattawa Rockets 0 (shutout Calvin Hull)

M'Chigeeng Thunderbirds 6 (Gabe Hare-2, Dillon Corbiere-2, Damion Debassige-2)
Mattawa Rockets 3 (Hunter Schambri-2, Mathew Marsh)

Gore Bay Bruins 5 (Nick Purvis-4, Trent Bell)
Nickel Centre Sting 0 (shutout Nathan Temple)

Gore Bay Bruins 3 (Trent Bell, Nick Purvis, Michael Bailey)
Mattawa Rockets 0 (shutout Nathan Temple)

Peewee Division
Championship Final
Nickel Centre Sting 3 (Riley Giroux, Carter Gosselin, Ty Parsons)
Nickel Centre Ice Dogs 2 (Devon Savignac, Ranson Dashner)

Nickel Centre Ice Dogs 8 (Devon Savignac-3, Ranson Dashner-2, Katie Pichette-2, Ayden Popowich)
Copper Cliff Eagles 2 (Townes Tarvudd, Ty Butterfly)

Copper Cliff Eagles 7 (Nolan Berthelot-3, Ty Butterfly-2, Nik Antonionio, Emma Carniello)
Mattawa Rockets 1 (Bailey Maxwell)

Rayside-Balfour Tigercats 9 (Quynn Turcotte-2, Brayden Beaupre-2, Nicholas Coursol, Adam Dionne, Dawson O'Hara, Joel Quenneville, Ethan Polley)
Mattawa Rockets 1 (Yanick Olivier)

Bantam Division
Championship Final
Nickel Centre Rocks 7 (Justin Gibeault-3, Brandon Wilson, Thomas Faggioni, Carter Rollins, Paulo Raso)
VE Cousin Vinny's 0 (shutout Jordan Welch)

Nickel Centre Sting 2 (William Filliter, Julien Marshall)
VE Cousin Vinny's 2 (Alain Loyer, Joey Loyer)

Nickel Centre Rocks 8 (Thomas Faggioni-3, Braedan Newell-2, Makaila Sheehan, Justin Gibeault-2)
M'Chigeeng Thunder 1 (Miishen Corbiere)

M'Chigeeng Thunderbirds 3 (Oha Cada, Miishen Corbiere, Brandon Debassige)
VE Cousin Vinny's 3 (Ryan Paquette, Nathan Thompson, Hunter Busch)

Midget Division
Championship
SMHA 80's Red Wings 3 (Zach Matheson, Christian Lariviere, Harry Smith)
SMHA OPP Strike Force 2 (Jacob Piquette, Frank Anzil)

Consolation
Nickel Centre Rocks 7 (Jamie Lafreniere-4, Ryan Rinaldi, Bailey Henry, Jarrett Serre)
East Nipissing Groulx Equipment Vipers 5 (Jeremy Courchesne-2, Adam Perron-2, Jonathan Davis)

SMHA 80's Red Wings 8 (Kyle Marshall-Bergeron-4, Cody Lavoie, Christian Lariviere, Connor Charbonneau, Zach Matheson)
East Nipissing Groulx Equipment Vipers 6 (Alex Lamarche-4, Tyler Johnson, Adam Perron)

SMHA OPP Strike Force 3 (Trevor Rainville-2, Tyler Johnson)
Nickel Centre Rocks 1 (Holden Eastwood)