The Silver Stick Hockey Tournament has never welcomed as many teams to Sudbury as is the case in 2025, with games for 120+ squads spread over two separate weekends in November.
And as might have been somewhat foreseeable, the Sudbury Silver Stick Hockey Tournament has never seen as much hardware hitting the road as in 2025, with out of town teams completing a seven for seven sweep here on Sunday.
In fact, the only one of the championship encounters that included local representation on weekend #1 occurred in the U10 A gold medal affair as the Collingwood Jr Blues bounced the Sudbury U10 "A" Wolves by a final count of 6-0.
The Blues received two goal performances from Miles Guscott and Hudson Leal and a shutout effort from netminder Max McCullagh in a quiet affair between the pipes – all of which made head coach Justin Azevedo more than pleased, once again, with his team.
“It’s so much fun coming to the rink and coaching these kids,” said Azevedo, a young man who piled up 124 points in leading the Kitchener Rangers to an OHL championship and Memorial Cup final in 2007-2008 – and then went on to enjoy a 15 year pro career, largely in the KHL.
“To see the progress from the start of the season to now, it’s awesome to see,” he added. “It’s U10, but I have an absolute blast.”
With years spent around the game that he loves, Azevedo will be sure to remind his troops just how special the experience of capturing a Silver Stick banner, of participating in an International Silver Stick Tournament can be.
“These kids are only nine years old, but this is something they will always remember,” he said. “Just cherish everything right now.”
Barrie Colts' puck-stopper Tyson Eacott also had plenty of reason to cherish and appreciate his performance in the U13 A final.
Everyone else in the rink most certainly did.
The 12 year old grade seven student turned aside 25 of the 26 shots that he faced, the difference-maker to be sure in a 2-1 triumph over the Kapuskasing Flyers. A tight-checking affair remained scoreless until late in period two when Ben Scott broke the ice for the Colts, converting on the power play following passes from Thomas Harding and Luke Chymycz.
Owen Cameron added an empty-net goal for Barrie with 1:22 remaining but Kap made things interesting when Jax Vermette found the back of the net with 19 ticks left on the clock. But with the steadying presence of Eacott as the final line of defense, the Colts would book their ticket to the next phase of Silver Stick play in January.
“You get nerves, but they go away eventually – usually after the first shot,” said Eacott, his preference for that initial challenge from an opposing shooter ideally being directed towards his glove hand, where he has a great deal of confidence.
Plus, the youngster did his homework – well, with a little help from his friends behind the bench.
“That number 17 (Cade Audet – Kapuskasing offensive standout who accounted for a good number of their shots), he likes to go backhand to forehand,” said Eacott. “But my coach told me that before so I kind of knew what he was going to do.”
“You simply want to try and get one step ahead of him.”
For as much as Eacott displayed tremendous fundamental positioning throughout the game, he’s not adverse to dealing with scramble mode from time to time.
“I’m great at sliding and I love desperation saves,” he suggested with a smile. “But I try and stay in the middle of the net and then push to whatever side they want to go to.”
If banners cannot remain in Sudbury, then best that we try and keep them in northern Ontario – a given in the U14 "A" final that saw the Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds take on the Kirkland Lake Blue Devils. The Puckhounds broke open a 1-0 contest, scoring three goals in a span of 90 seconds early in period three, blanking the Blue Devils 4-0 as Nate Romen potted a pair of goals.
Temiskaming Shores also reached the gold medal game in the U15 "A" division before losing to the South Oxford Storm by a final count of 5-1, with five different players accounting for the offense for the Storm, a team that gathers talent from a county located almost midway between Kitchener and London.
The Georgian Bay Islanders denied the Collingwood Jr Blues a second crown this weekend in Sudbury, riding the shutout performance of Weston Laurin to a 2-0 victory in the U12 "A" grand finale. Both goals came in the final frame, with Hadley Thompson sniping the game-winner with 8:15 to play and Archer Dalziel adding the insurance empty-net tally.
The Upper Ottawa Valley Aces jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the U11 "A" showdown at Countryside and held on to double the North Bay Trappers 4-2 as Izik Elliott, Benjamin Donihee, Thomas Yuvan and Weston Phillips chipped in with one goal apiece for the winners. Hunter Jennison replied with both markers for North Bay, both coming in the final stanza.
With no local presence in the U18A bracket, the final tilt would see the Milton Jr Menace stop the Porcupine Gold Kings 6-3 as Max Gaetan scored twice for the champs. And for as much as the NOHA entry came up a little short, the tournament is still a highlight of their winter schedule, as Al Hamill (son of Sudbury Silver Stick founding father “Red” Hamill) noted at the mid-week pre-event media reception last week.
“We have towns right across northern Ontario and the winters here are long,” said Hamill, a pretty solid hockey talent in his own right. “This tournament brings all of these kids together for competition and goodwill.”
“It’s something they will all have to look back on.”
