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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-04-04, Page 9Individual honours The Wingham Ironmen held their annual awards banquet March 24 at the Wingham Legion Hall. Among those receiving individual honours were Rob McGee of Belgrave, front, left: the Don Higgins Memorial Award and Matt Anderson of Londesboro, back, left, executive trophy and leading scorer. Others are, back from left: Matt MacPhee, executive trophy, rookie of the year and Carson Cup recipient; and front: Mike Caslick, most improved player and playoff lead- ing scorer; Lance Scott, playoff MVP; Jeremy Weishar, regular season MVP and top defence- man. (Advance-Times photo) Ironmen honour their own NORTH HURON WESCAST COMMUNITY COMPLEX 14.; W 711 6 67 PRESENTS "A Day of Activities for Family and Adults Alike" APRIL 21, 2001 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM • OPENING CEREMONIES 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM • •. " 900 PM - 100 AM • LOWDOWN" ?el Dance the Evening Away • $10 per Person • Enjoy the Monte Carlo Tables TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THESE LOCATIONS: Ernie King Music - Wingham & Goderich • CIBC - Wingham, Blyth, Brussels, Listow Bob Foxton Fuels - Wingham & Walkerton Brian's valu-mart in Wingham Recreation Department - Wingham Town Hall or N.H.W,C.0 „re Swimming Demonstrations • Clowns and Face Painting "Buddy" the Life Guard • "Digger" the Dog • "Buckles" PFD Mascot Play Monte Carlo Tables • Music by "Crippled Duck" .....\- ookla,n's Dance School • Music by "The Becketts" • Andrea's Dance Schoor *5:00 PM - 7:00 PM • Roast Beef Dinner - $10 per Person • , A THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2001. PAGE 9. From the sidelines A bit of hockey history By Hugh Nichol A storied but almost forgotten piece of our coun- try's hockey his- tory takes place April 10 to the 14 at the Sports and Entertainment Centre, London Road, Sarnia. The 2001 Allan Cup tournament, hosted by the Ontario Hockey Association's Petrolia Squires is to amateur hockey what the Stanley Cup is to professional. It's the cli- max to the National Championship of Canadian Men's Senior AAA hockey. Play for the Allan Cup is national in scope, any community large or small who can ice a. senior hockey team has the right to issue a challenge and at season's end meet in a series of eliminations until only one, the undisputed amateur champi- on of Canada is left. Competition for the trophy, donat- ed in 1908 by Sir Montague Allan, a Montrealt rtinancier and industrialist, has filled our hockey books with fascinating tales of lore featuring the Penticton V's, Whitby Dunlop, Edmonton Mercurys, Galt Hornets, Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen, Thunder Bay Twins and the last team to win gold, the 1961 Trail Smoke Eaters who claimed the world championship in Switzerland with a lineup that featured all but one hometown boy. In its beginning Senior hockey often exceeded the National Hockey League in terms of popularity. So strong was the calibre of play that in 1920 the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association asked the defending Cup champions from Winnipeg to represent Canada at the Olympic Games. The success of the Falcons, who returned home with the gold medal, convinced the Canadian offi- cials to continue sending the defend- ing Allan cup winner to the Olympics, and in later years, the world championships. This practice continued until the The Brussels. Tykes played in Seaforth at the Tyke year-end tour- nament on Saturday, March 31 and Sunday, April 1. The Tykes had a fast game against Mitchell. Ryan Baker was in net and did a great job, but the Mitchell team ended the game with a 5-0 win put- ting Brussels into the B side of the tournament. The second game was against Bayfield. Nic Gowing started out for Brussels scoring one. Ty Sebastian then got two goals before Zach Watson scored. Gowing added to his tally, then Sebastian scored his hat- trick goal. Adam Cousins got one before Gowing completed his hat- trick to end the game 8-0. Baker earned the shutout game. Three Blyth girls had the opportu- nity to play at the national broomball tournament this past weekend in Palmerston and Arthur. Kristin Oster, Rachel deBoer and Sandra McNichol, who signed with the Blyth league were picked up to play with the Seaforth Assassin team. formation of our National Men's Team in 1963, if you believe in deja- vu, however, the 2000 Allan Cup champions from Powell River par- ticipated on behalf of Canada in January at the Nagano Cup in Japan, and with the demise of our national team program, there is a motion on the Canadian Hockey Association agenda to review the possibility of once again asking the Allan Cup champions to represent Canada internationally. ,Unfortunately over the past decade interest in both fan support and corporate financing has sent Senior hockey on a downward spi- ral. As well players who normally would be playing Senior are now being sought to till the rosters of the numerous minor league professional teams and those who remain often sell their services to the highest bid- der or to the team they believe has the best change for a berth in the finals. Even this year one of the first moves by the Petrolia club was to sign Oxford's three best players set- ting off a series of defections within the Southwestern Ontario League. The result was, by season's end the Blues were unable to ice a team for the playoffs while during the regular season both Brantford and Simcoe forfeited games due to a lack of players. This year's 2001 Esso Allan Cup playoff format is as follows: with Hockey Quebec opting not to send a club, and no senior hockey in the Maritimes, four teams, Petrolia, the Ontario representative from Dundas, Lloydminster, who defeated Grunthal for the Saskatchewan- Manitoba title and the winner of the Powell River (BC) and Stony Plain (Alta) series will compete in a round-robin style tournament. The first place team receives a bye to the Saturday, April 14 final where they will meet the winner of a semi-final game between the second and third place finishers. Single game admis- sion is $12, while a $70 fee gives you entry to all eight games. Brussels' last game was for the B championship against Zurich. Zurich started out with the first goal then Watson tied up the game. Sebastian scored to make the game 2-1 with assists by Chad Terpstra Ind Cousins. Morgan Deitner, Ryan Sholdice, Gowing and Nathan Watson played well on defence. Zurich scored another goal, and with 50 seconds left in the game Gowing tied it up 3-3. The game went into sudden death overtime. Zurich got the lucky shol to end the game with their 4-3 victory. Forwards Lane Sebastian, Danny Donkers, Evan Smith, Shea McLean, Terpstra, Cousins, T. Sebastian, and Z. Watson all worked very hard on forward. Though the Assassins didn't place all that well in the tournament, the majority of their games ended close- ly with one lost in overtime and one in sudden death. Oster, who as back- up goalie played in five of six games received received three game MVP awards, as well as being team MVP. Tykes work hard at tourney Locals play in nationals By Jim Brown Wingham Advance Times The Wingham Ironmen may not have had the most successful season on the ice this past season. March 24 at the team awards banquet, both head coach Dan Nairn and assistant coach Doug .Nei) said the players were a pleasure to work with. Nairn said at the start of the season when only three returning players had junior hockey experience he knew they would.- have to be the nucleus of the team. Despite the inexperience, the coach said the Ironmen had a lot of one or two-goal losses. He noted the team may have been blown out three times. "It is a big jump from minor hock- ey to Junior hockey," said Nairn. One of those differences is the length of the game. All season long he had been wondering why his players were unable to play 60 min- utes of hockey. In Midget hockey, the players are playing a 45-minute game, while a Junior hockey game is 60 minutes in length. No matter what level of Junior hockey a person plays, they have to get used to the 60-minute game. Nairn told the gathering there is not much difference between Junior A and Junior C hockey. It just depends on a player being in the right place at the right time in their draft-eligibility year. He reminded the players they should be proud of having played Junior hockey. He added they should remember to keep their shots low and stay away from bad penalties. Neil said the 2000-2001 season was a refreshing year with Nairn as the bench boss. The assistant coach said he learned more ideas about hockey during the past year. He knew this past season was not going to be like the previous years Continued on page 12 Pre-Tykes enjoy big win Continued from page 8 four more by Brussels' goalie to end the game 8-6. Brussels' second game was against Clifford. Goals scored for Brussels were: Watson,- six; Park, one: Cousins, five; Ross, one. This mean a big win of 13-4 to end the season on a high for the Brussels squad.