Offense did not come easy for either of the Sudbury Nickel Capitals AAA teams which took part in the Steve Richey Memorial Tournament of Champions last week in Peterborough.

The U16 AAA and U18 AAA squads would combine to net a grand total of just seven goals in their eight games - and while the elder lads, in particular, managed to keep many a contest close going into the third period, that lack of production would ultimately leave both teams sitting winless as round robin play wrapped up.

Head coach Jordan Cheechoo and the U16 crew lost to the Burlington Eagles (3-1 - Coulson Bell), the Hamilton Huskies (3-1 - Alexandre Valade), the host Peterborough Petes (6-0) and the Grey-Bruce Highlanders (1-0 - third period goal from Jack Kruiderink).

As for Brian Dickinson's U18 troops, the locals were in tough against the Elgin Middlesex Canucks (4-1 - Kohen Crane - two in the third for Canucks), Ontario Hockey Academy - White (3-2 - Caden Dubreuil, Dominic Morris), the North York Rangers (4-1 - Noah Kohan - three in the third for Rangers) and the Peterborough Petes (5-1 - Caden Dubrueil - four in the third for Petes).

Although it's likely little consolation to the Sudbury reps, the north in general struggled across the board, with Great North U18 AAA League entries posting the following records: North Bay U16 Trappers (0-4); New Liskeard Cubs (0-4); Soo Jr Greyhounds (3-1); Kapuskasing Flyers (0-3-1); Timmins Majors (0-3-1); North Bay U18 Trappers (3-0-1).