I am not sure if many of you have looked at the upcoming weather forecast, but suffice to say that there is a nasty blast of winter heading out way beginning on Friday.
Thankfully, this past weekend allowed us to enjoy a far more comfortable Winter Blast, courtesy of the good folks at the Nickel Centre Minor Hockey Association as more than 50 teams gathered for a January tournament tradition that returned this year following a one-year hiatus.
Wrapping things up on Sunday evening at the George Armstrong Arena in Garson, organizers should be throwing kudos out to the Rayside-Balfour Minor Hockey Association (RBMHA).
That crew managed to do a pretty good job in balancing out the talent in age brackets where the RBMHA iced more than one team, evidenced by a final score of 2-1 in the U18 HL final that featured two Rayside teams in the gold medal affair, putting a ribbon on the weekend festivities.
Liam Roberts scored his second goal of the game with just over three minutes to play, lifting the Rayside-Balfour Wildcats to the win over the Rayside-Balfour Tigercats, with Jack Yorston pulling the trigger for the latter.
The U13 championship encounter also featured just a single goal differential – and also featured two teams from the same association as NCMHA Blast Black edged NCMHA Blast Orange, 5-4 in overtime. Providing the heroics was Liam Gillis, who potted a pair of markers, same as teammate Benson Deforge, with Caleb Levesque adding the other.
Dax Dumont recorded a hat trick in a losing cause, while Keaton Richer sent the game to OT, knotting the contest at 4-4 with 1:52 showing on the clock. The U13 banner was one of three which remained with the host organization, beginning with the U11 as NCMHA Blast Black blanked the Englehart Express 3-0.
Nicky Bissonnette and Wesley Eng scored in the second period of play and Nathan Poulin added some third period insurance as netminder Joshua Jerome recorded the shutout between the pipes for Nickel Centre.
Rounding out the stay at home winners’ circle were the NCMHA U15 Blast Black squad, 5-2 winners over the Temiskaming Shores Puckhounds as Grayson Lapalme paced the attack with a three goal effort. Chipping in with one snipe apiece for the Blast were Owen WrightReed Gregorich, with Carson Sheldon and Connor Rivest replying in a losing cause.
The U9 hardware would ultimately have to travel the farthest as the Kirkland Lake Volunteer Fire Brigade dumped North Bay Ivan’s Restaurant Trappers 5-1 as Ryker West and Archer Jacques lit the lamp twice each. Zander Owen closed out the scoring for the Tri-Towns entry while Matthew Marson spoiled the shutout bid of Benjamine Scheussler, breaking the goose-egg back in the first period of play.
The U16 final was no contest as the Capreol Hawks silenced the Nickel Centre Blast Orange 7-0, powered in part by two-goal performances from Luc Belanger and Jackson Leveillé. Hudson Lapierre, Erik Del Papa and Noah Barriault rounded out the scoring while Nicholas Paquette earned a very quiet shutout.
