In an effort to provide a more consistent approach to offering coverage for the wide variety of sports that are highlighted on SudburySports.com, we've decided to include a new feature. Bi-weekly divisional or league updates will offer a wide array of statistical tidbits, roster updates, tournament results for participating teams. Valley East Minor Hockey, both the VEPHL and VEMHA, will be featured every second Thursday - next update is February 7th

Talk about a minor hockey encore. Earlier this month, the Valley East Rebel Major Atoms grabbed the headlines by capturing their division at the prestigious Bell Capital Cup tournament, an event that gathers nearly 500 teams in Ottawa over the Christmas to New Year's holiday.

Just a mere three weeks later, the Rebels were right back at it, taking top spot in the International Silver Stick Major Atom A playdown held in Sarnia. Valley East downed the Oakville Rangers 5-2 in the championship encounter, picking up five straight victories en route to yet another tournament banner.

With the overall level of minor hockey raised substantially south of the border over the past twenty years, the Rebels enjoyed a number of outstanding matchups, including an opening game 3-1 win over the South Bend Rovers from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Scott Villeneuve, Anthony Pelletier and Cameron Mackenzie picked up markers for the Valley crew, who improved to 2-0 in Day One competition with their easiest victory of the event, a 7-0 whitewashing of the Chicago Flames. Ryan Theriault paced the Rebels attack with a three goal effort while Cole Braney chipped in with a pair of his own. Brody Brunet and Cameron Mackenzie round out the scoring as Valley East topped the 16-team competition after opening day.

Much the same on Saturday as the Rebels qualify for one of four semi-final berths thanks to a 7-4 win over the St Thomas Jr Stars. Theriault makes it back to back hat-tricks in the Valley victory, with Braney, Brunet, Mackenzie and Jordan Michael picking up one goal apiece.

Off to the semis and what would turn out to be the Rebels' stiffest test as coach Kevin Villeneuve's young squad slips past the Hampton Roads Whalers (West Chester, Pennsylvania) 3-2. Scott Villeneuve sparks the offense for the locals, netting a pair of goals while Brody Brunet provides a little insurance.

Not too surprisingly, the Atom A final pits the two teams that finished first and second place in preliminary round action as the Rebels look to topple the slightly higher seeded Oakville Rangers. A balanced attack continues to come in handy for the Valley boys who enjoy a two-goal outing from Tyler Rivest and singles from Ryan Theriault, Scott Villeneuve and Brendyn Sauve in walking away with Silver Stick bragging rights.

The Rebels were extremely well represented on the Atom A All-Star team as goaltenders Matthew Rychlo and Alex Fournier, defenseman Jordan Michael and forward Ryan Theriault were all named to the squad. The back to back tournament championships for the Valley East Major Atoms represent yet another step along a three year journey for coach Villeneuve and staff, who notes that the team has endured surprisingly little turnover since its inception at the Novice rep level.

"That's been a big factor in our success", notes Villeneuve. "The concepts that we have been passing on to the kids have been much the same since Novice" he adds, pointing out that he first sensed some of the potential for this particular group as early as just a month into their Novice schedule.

"I think the atttitude of the kids is one of the keys - they are all very competitive kids and we all firmly believe that you will get out of something what you put in", says Villeneuve. According to the long-time Valley East hockey volunteer, the Major Atom Rebels developped a three year plan in Novice, with goals for Year 1, 2 and 3, with the team currently ahead of the game plan.

But the biggest challenge still remains ahead as the team continues to gear up for what they hope will be a trip to their first OHF (Ontario Hockey Federation) tournament being hosted by the St Thomas Minor Hockey Association in early April. Still, Villeneuve is optimistic based in large part of the makeup of the team he has to work with. "This is a very passionate group with a high level of dedication."

"They really feed off of each other. Everybody in the room knows that you come to every practice and every game to give 100%", states Villeneuve. While both the Bell Capital Cup and Silver Stick tournament championships are noteworthy, Villeneuve believes that they certainly offer slightly different challenges.

"I think the Bell Capital Cup may be a slightly higher accomplishment because there were so many distractions for the kids and they really kept their focus", pointing out that the youngsters had attended the Ottawa-Washington NHL game during their time in Ottawa as well as taking to the ice at Scotiabank Place for their final game.

For those who follow minor hockey, it's not unusual to find talented major atom teams looking to end their season with a bang, fully aware of the likelihood that with "AAA" hockey available in Greater Sudbury beginning at the Minor Peewee level, this season represents quite likely their last as a core group together."Everybody in the room wants to play "AAA" hockey", acknowledges Villeneuve. But with the Valley East players competing against talented youngsters from other centers locally come August of 2008, the reality is that it's extremely unlikely the current roster of the Valley East team are likely to bear an exact resemblance to this year's team when the 2008-09 minor hockey season kicks off.

And Villeneuve has been around long enough to know that the current system of "AAA" hockey in certainly not ideal. While many communities of similar size to Sudbury will field a roster of "AAA" teams beginning at the Minor Peewee level and continuing right through to the Major Midget ranks, things are not quite that clear cut in the Nickel City.

For starters, there are two local groups which currently ice "AAA" teams. The Sudbury Minor Hockey Association lineup of teams this year includes the Minor Peewee, Major Peewee, Minor Bantam, Major Bantam and Midget "AAA" Wolves. Meanwhile, the Nickel City Sons organization, created last year around this time, now oversees the Major Bantams (formerly the Onaping Falls Huskies) as well as the Midgets of the Great North Midget League (a merger of the former Valley East Cobras and Rayside-Balfour Sabrecats of previous years).

In addition, all signs point to the NOHA granting the Nickel City request to ice a team at the "AAA" Major Peewee level beginning this upcoming September. For those not familiar with the workings of minor hockey in Sudbury, the SMHA teams comprise more or less children of families who live in the old City of Sudbury proper as well as Copper Cliff while the Nickel City area (NOHA District 2) covers off all off the outlying areas that existed prior to the amalgation of Greater Sudbury.

"There are communities that are smaller than us (Sudbury) that have consistently produced winning teams", admits Villeneuve. "There has to be a structure in place to keep the better kids in an environment that will be challenging to them."

In the meantime, Villeneuve's focus is on the upcoming West Ferris "AA" tournament on February 8th and 9th, a chance for his young crew to play up one level in preparation for the tough matches ahead. Of course, this may well be the last year that the Valley East group will remain as an "A" classified team anyways. But that's a story for another time.

The Valley East Rebel Major Atoms roster includes: Matthew Rychlo, Alex Fournier, Scott Villeneuve, Dominic Dalcourt, Justin Trottier, Ryan Theriault, Cameron Mackenzie, Alex Benoit, Jordan Michael, Cole Braney, Anthony Pelletier, Brody Brunet, Brendyn Sauve, Jeremie Noel, Tyler Rivest, Kevin Villeneuve (coach), Bob Brunet (ass't coach), John Sauve (ass't coach), Josh Bigras (trainer) and team manager Bob Rivest.

One of four local teams to compete at the 2008 Penguin International Winter Classic held last weekend in Toronto, the Valley East Rebel Minor Peewees worked their way through to the championship final before settling for second place after suffering a tough 2-1 loss at the hands of the North London Nationals.

However, if exposing your players to well-matched competition is ultimately the goal of the management of most minor hockey teams when it comes to tournament selection, the Rebels can be commended for entering the Penguins event this year. Valley East opened round robin play with a 3-3 tie against the Clarkson Hurricanes as Tyson Troscinski, Aaron Campbell and Tyler Thompson scored for the Rebels.

Troscinksi continued to hold the hot hand in Game # 2, registering the hat-trick as Valley East bounced the Duffield Devils 5-2. Brady Grenon and Alex Lafreniere round out the scoring for Valley East, who then suffered their only loss of the weekend event, blanked 3-0 by North London.

An exciting semi-final battle with Clarkson would go to overtime. With the teams playing 3 on 3 hockey, the Rebels were assessed a penalty. But that didn't stop Tyson Troscinski from netting the short-handed game-winning goal with just 29 seconds remaining as the Rebels moved on for another crack at the Nationals.

A closer affair the second time around but still a one goal loss as Colin Prevost would count the only Valley East goal. The Minor Peewee Rebels find themselves in fourth place in Nickel District league standings, but trail the Sudbury Lady Wolves by just three points while holding five games in hand.

Still more hardware for the Valley East contingent, this time courtesy of the King Sportswear Bantam houseleague team which returned from Kanata with gold medals in hand after picking up five straight wins while outscoring the opposition 23-3.

King Sportswear blanked the Kanata Koas 3-0, dumped West Ferris Walmart 6-0 and ran their unbeaten string to three games with a 6-1 victory over the Petawawa Raiders, securing the team a berth in the semi-final encounters. The Valley boys proceeded to eliminate the Kanata Sting 5-2 before continuing their solid defensive play with yet another shutout, a 3-0 win in the final against the Stittsville Redmen.

The Valley East attack produced the tournament's top three scorers as Joshua Harkins (5G-4A), Eric Moisan (8G) and Mathieu Prevost (3G-4A) helped to lead King Sportswear. Other scorers for the VEMHA representatives were Eric St Georges (4 pts), Derek Belanger (4 pts), Michael Haney (3 pts), Ben Connors (3 pts), Matthieu Carriere (2 pts) and Jason Carbone (1 pt).

Allowing just three goals against in five games, the defense corps of Brandon Legault, Joshua Jackson, Brennan Roy-Bertin and Jonathan Gravelle obviously played a huge role for the King Sportswear crew while Gustave Moreau held firm between the pipes, racking up three shutouts and a goals against average of 0.60.

One member of the King Sportswear team, Corey Castonguay, was unable to attend the tournament in Kanata. The team staff is comprised of Luc Castonguay, Pat Harkins, Claude Moisan, Joanne Moisan and Carole Legault.

The Valley East Rebel Major Peewees managed a little "one-upmanship" over their Minor Peewee colleagues, picking up the tournament title at the Penguins Classic thanks to a 4-1 win in the final over the Aurora Tigers. The Rebels kicked off tournament action by doubling Aurora 4-2, beat the Toronto Ice Dogs (6-1) and Toronto Aces (7-0) to close out round robin play and advanced to the championship encounter thanks to a convincing 6-1 semi-final triumph over the host Peewee Penguins.

At this time, we are awaiting individual scoring information for the Valley East Rebel Major Peewees for the event. The team finds itself in action once again this weekend, one of eight teams participating in the Major Peewee division of the Valley East Tournament.

In early January, the Valley East Minor Bantams travelled to the Annual NobleKing Challenge Cup Rep Tournament, posting a record of 0-1-2 in their three game stint in southern Ontario. The Rebels lost 3-1 to West London before playing both the NobleKing Knights and West Hill Golden Hawks to 2-2 draws. Their record was not enough to advance the Valley boys into the semi-finals as the tournament eventually was captured by West London with a 2-1 win over the Bradford Bulldogs.

And in yet another example of a tournament that provides well-matched competition, the Minor Bantam grouping at the NobleKing event would produce three ties in the twelve games contested, four one goal games and two two-goal games with no margin of victory exceeding three goals. Definately the type of event you don't mind attending year after year.