The Collingwood Blues have qualified for the semifinals at the Centennial Cup national Jr. A championship in Oakville.
The Ontario Junior Hockey League champion Blues defeated the Ottawa-area Navan Grads 3-2 Thursday afternoon to finish the round-robin at 4-0 and earn a bye from Friday’s quarterfinals.
They’ll go directly to Saturday’s semis with an eye on playing in Sunday afternoon’s nationally-televised final.
The Blues spotted Navan a power-play goal before scoring three straight and then hanging on for the win. Landon Wright, Spencer Young and Ethan Facchina scored.
Canadian Junior Hockey League and OJHL goaltender of the year Noah Pak made 37 saves to earn the win.
“I played for my hometown team in Strathroy (the GOJHL Rockets) for two seasons and when we were eliminated from the playoffs I jumped at the chance to play for the Blues,” Facchina said. “There is a great culture here and all of the guys play their part, we overcame adversity early in the games in shorthanded situations but we pulled together and got it done.”
Wright scored on a laser shot.
“It was another strong performance again from the whole team,” the Maine commit said. “We dug deep when we had to and once again our goalie (Noah Pak) came up with big saves at key times. We do everything as a group and once again all the players did their part. Now we have a couple of days off to get ready for the semis.”
Former Blues defenceman Matthew Roy had one of the Navan goals.
“I was really looking forward to this game,” he said. “It was a terrific contest out there, they threw everything at us and we held in there. On my goal, I took a couple of extra steps in and I was relieved to see it go in off the post. Now we cross over to play a team from the other group so we have to be ready for that.
Friday’s quarter-final match-ups are:
- Navan Grads vs. Miramichi Timberwolves – 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT
- Winkler Flyers vs. Calgary Canucks – 7:30 pm. ET/4:30 p.m. PT
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The host Oakville Blades, the other OJHL team in the 10-team field, lost 3-1 to Saskatchewan’s Melfort Mustangs to finish the event with a 1-3 record.
Luke Johnston scored for Oakville.
“It’s frustrating for the kids and it’s frustrating for the coaches because we were hoping for a better outcome,” said Oakville Head Coach Scott McCrory. “As I said to the staff, we were never embarrassed in any of the games and we worked until the bitter end.”
“It’s kind of cliché but it’s true — tonight the kids didn’t give up, their goalie played exceptionally well, we didn’t get looks and they get two lucky bounces. That’s the game of hockey; sometimes you’re on the good side, sometimes you’re on the bad and there’s a winner and loser in every game.”
Melfort (4-0) earned the other direct berth to the semifinals.
Noah Tyrrell had four assists for Oakville in the tournament.
“It was great being a part of the Centennial Cup with the Blades,” he told Ron Valentine. “We had a great end to our regular season with eight straight wins and then we got past Buffalo in the playoffs before going down to the Blues.”
“We lost to Collingwood who are a very good club,” said Max Donohoe, like Tyrrell a former North York Ranger. “We battled hard tonight against a top-ranked team and we have to take the positives out of that. Getting the experience of playing for a national championship is a great way to end your junior career.”
Tyrrell has committed to Wisconsin-Stout. “They have a very good tech program there and it’s my specialty.”
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The Greater Sudbury Cubs, with some OJHL flavour on their roster, won Wednesday’s other game, over College Francais de Longueuil from Quebec.
Mason Chiatroni played for the Cobourg Cougars in 2021-22. He had 44 points from the blueline for Sudbury in the regular NOJHL season and playoffs. “It’s been a fun season with the Cubs especially with my younger brother Hudson playing up front (he had 99 regular season and playoff points in his first season as a 16-year-old). It’s certainly a good feeling winning our last game. This is for everyone in the organization who has been so supportive of us this season.”
Fellow defenceman Justin Seguin started the season as a Caledon Admiral in the OJHL after spending the previous campaign with the Espanola Paper Kings. He scored the Cubs’ third goal. “On the goal I just worked my way into the play, I love to shoot the puck and I was lucky that it found the net. It certainly was good to get that win.”
TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the championship game on 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, go to: https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/national-championships/men/national-junior-a/2024
-with files from Ron Valentine and Hc
