The Collingwood Blues improved to 3-0 at the Centennial Cup national Jr. A championship with an 8-0 rout of Quebec champion Collège Français de Longueuil in Oakville Tuesday afternoon.
The host Oakville Blades, the other OJHL team in the 10-team tournament, lost 4-0 to Manitoba’s Winkler Flyers in the nightcap. The Blades (1-2) gave up two empty-net goals late in the game.
Collingwood has a spot in the playoff round but they’d like to upgrade from playing in Friday’s quarterfinals to a berth in Saturday’s semifinals. They’d accomplish that by winning their final round-robin game with the Navan Grads and winning their five-team division.
Collingwood is averaging 7.66 goals for and 2.00 against at the tournament.
“We really like the way we are playing right now and our special teams really came alive this afternoon,” said Andrew Campoli, head coach of the Blues. “One thing for sure, we cannot get complacent now. Our focus is on getting a good rest on our day off tomorrow before the big game against Navan (2-0) on Wednesday.”
Shutout machine Noah Pak, playing in his home town, stopped all 22 shots from the Quebec champs.
Spencer Young had the hat trick and captain Dylan Hudon two goals and an assist. Jack Rimmer, Ryan Cook and Landon Wright had the other goals.
Forward Landon Wright has five points so far in the club’s three games: “We’ve really found our feet, we’ve been sticking to the game plan and trusting our strengths on the ice,” Wright told the OJHL. “Every single one of us has been at the top of our game and (Noah) Pak has been a wall. Today, we kept it simple, chipped pucks in, battled and shot everything. Our special teams are something we dialed in on before the tournament and it’s helped us in games significantly.”
Hudon has eight points in the tournament.
“Our team came to play and it showed in the score,” he said. “We were great in our own end which led to offense for us. Pak made some big saves when we needed it. Now, we are looking forward to Wednesday, our last game in the round-robin.”
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Oakville Blades Kenny Belanger and Sean Clarke have been to Centennial Cups before. Belanger, who leads Oakville scorers at the event with three goals and five points. with the Soo Thunderbirds in 2022 and Clarke with the Collingwood Blues last year. Sean will play for the University of Toronto this Fall.
Clarke: “It was a tough game for us, really a 2-0 game. We hung in there but just could not get the goal we needed to get back into it. The confidence level of the guys is still high and we’re going to keep battling. No one wants their last game of Junior hockey to be a loss and we’ll be putting it all out there on Wednesday.”
Belanger: “We played as hard as we could but tonight that goal we needed to get back into it just eluded us. We can still finish this tournament 2-2 against the top teams from across the country. With our experience at the Centennial Cup before, hopefully Sean and I can help to keep everyone positive as we go into our last game.”
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Former OJHLer Julian Molinaro backstopped his Calgary Canucks to a 3-2 win over the Greater Sudbury Cubs Tuesday and was named his team’s player of the game.
“I really enjoyed my time in the OJHL,” he told Ron Valentine. “I learned a lot from my coaches, Joe (Washkurak) in Mississauga and Andrew (Campoli) in Collingwood. I was fortunate enough to go to the Centennial Cup last year with the Blues even though I didn’t get to play in a game. The Cubs played us tough but our second goal took the pressure off a bit. But they still kept coming at us. I’m happy with the way the tournament has gone. We could easily be 3-0. Our last game against Navan will be another tough one. One of my best friends, Matthew Roy (also ex of the Blues) plays on defence for them. I’m really happy to get the commitment to Northern Michigan, but right now my thoughts are solely on getting my hands on the Centennial Cup.”
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Round-robin play continues through Wednesday at 16 Mile Sports Complex.
Both OJHL teams are off Tuesday.
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the championship game on Sunday, May 19, at 3 p.m. ET. All preliminary-round games, quarterfinals and semifinals can be livestreamed at HockeyCanada.ca.
For more information on the Centennial Cup, including tickets, go to: https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/national-championships/men/national-junior-a/2024
-with files from Ron Valentine
