Since moving to a two weekend play-in / playoff tournament format a few years ago, the Great North U18 AAA League have treated fans in the north to some of the most exciting single game showdowns seen in these parts in recent times.

In that sense, the 2026 championship encounter did not disappoint.

William Fournier snapped a 4-4 tie with under three minutes to play, lifting the North Bay U18 AAA Trappers to yet another league crown, edging the Soo U18 AAA Jr Greyhounds 5-4 at the Don Shepherdson Memorial Arena in New Liskeard on Sunday.

Scott Szczygiel, Cedar Montreuil, Philippe Lafontaine and Francis Popkie rounded out the scoring for the winners in the back and forth affair with the Trappers up 1-0, down 2-1 and up 4-2 at various times in this contest. Makks Demidovich scored twice in a losing cause, joined on the scoresheet by Hounds’ teammates Frankie Reda and Espen Escasa.

After losing just three games in the regular season one year ago, coach Josh Dale and the Trappers were upset in the GNML final by the Sudbury U18 AAA Wolves. This time around, the former long-time assistant coach with the Powassan Voodoos seemed far more at ease that his crew that improved their mark to 35-1-0-0 this year could complete the task at hand.

“This year’s team was a little bit deeper, I find - and last year, I was a rookie in the league,” said Dale. “I’ve grown a lot since last year. And this year, we just seemed more connected and together.”

Returning the top end goaltending tandem of Carson Ruddy and Logan Coates certainly helped, as did implementing a style of play that allowed the talented duo to rank among the league leaders again in 2025-2026.

“The biggest thing, at the beginning of the year especially, was focusing on the defensive zone,” said Dale. “We were fine with winning games 1-0. We had a lot of big wins, but we also won a lot of games by a couple of goals only.”

With just one win to show for their four round robin games, the Sudbury U18 AAA Wolves drew the undefeated Trappers in the Saturday semi-final, jumping out to a 2-0 lead and giving it a nice run before falling short by a final score of 6-4.

Khade Metatawabin had a two goal effort to help keep the Wolves close with solo tallies coming courtesy of Gillis O’Daiskey and Brett Moxam while Philippe Lafontaine and Scott Szczygiel had two goals apiece for North Bay.

The Sudbury U16 AAA Wolves struggled to hit the win column at the playdowns, missing out on the final four after posting a record of 0-3-1 that was highlighted by a 4-4 tie with the host New Liskeard Cubs. Ty Belanger, Felix Sapay, Lennox Therrien and Alex Proulx all managed to light the lamp for coach Jason Young while Kyle Cloutier potted a pair for the Cubs.

The U18 AAA Trappers will now represent the NOHA at the upcoming U18 AAA Central Region Championships being hosted by the Markham Waxers from March 30th to April 5th.

The Trappers will be in tough, but coach Dale knows that he can draw on elements of success as recently as early January at the Peterborough tournament, his team heading to the playoffs there undefeated but facing the #1 ranked team in the province in the form of the Ajax-Pickering Raiders.

“We were up 3-0, took a double minor penalty that let them back in and ended up losing the game,” said Dale. “But we’re going to build off that, feed off that. We can compete with these teams down south, including the top teams - but we have to stay absolutely disciplined.”