Ron Valentine: Featured Writer
The round robin portion of the centennial Cup in Summerside, PEI is now complete. Today will be a day off for the remaining six teams but practice sessions will be ongoing. From Group A the MHL’s Niverville Nighthawks received a bye to the semifinals on Saturday May 16 and from Group B it was the College Francais de Longueuil.
The other four qualifiers from the two division round-robin format will meet on Friday May 15 with the first game at 4 pm between the Toronto Patriots and the AJHL representative, the Canmore Eagles. The 7.30 game will feature an all MHL matchup between the League Champion Truro Bearcats and the host Summerside Western Capitals. Summerside will be looking for revenge in this one as they fell to the Bearcats in the second round of their playoffs 4-3. Truro had a 3-1 lead before the Capitals won the next two games, setting up the game seven and a 3-2 Truro win at Credit Union Place in Summerside. With only two minutes remaining in the game the Bearcats led 3-0 before time ran out on the Capitals. Almost 3800 fans watched this game, so a large attendance will be expected on Friday evening.
The Patriots opponents in the quarter final, the Eagles, started off the round robin portion of the tournament with a 3-2 overtime win over the CCHL’s Rockland Nationals, the #1 ranked team in Canada. Canmore’s winner came from John Szabo. In game two they edged the Thunder Bay North Stars 3-2 before beating the Capitals 5-1 and in their fourth contest of the opening round they fell 6-4 to the MHL’s Niverville Nighthawks who finished with the best round-robin record of three regulation and one overtime victories.
The Patriots started the tournament strongly with wins over the NOJHL’s Greater Sudbury Cubs 8-3 and the SJHL’s Flin Flon Bombers 7-2 before falling 6-1 to Truro and 7-4 to Longueuil. Cole Cooksey ended tied as points leader in round one with 10, the same number as Niverville’s Adam Vigfusson and Rockland’s Mavrick Brunet. Vigfusson had a high of seven goals with Cooksey and the National’s Gabriel Le Houillier scoring six times. Mathis Lacroix-Goulet led all goalkeepers with a goals against average of 1.75.
