Capital Cup is kicking it sesquicentennial style
Canada 150 divisions, provincial reps add nationwide flavour to hockey tourney
Throughout its 19 years, the Bell Capital Cup minor hockey tournament has expanded its number of divisions.
This year, in keeping with celebrations of the sesquicentennial of Confederation, the event, for this year only, has added 32 teams — playing in divisions named Canada 150.
Each province and territory is represented in boys and girls competitions, along with two Ontario squads plus one each for Ottawa and the Outaouais.
All were scheduled to play at least once on the outdoor rink at Parliament Hill, but extreme cold led to deteriorating ice conditions, so all outdoor games were moved indoors.
“The big focus this year was the Canada 150 divisions,” tournament general manager Scott Lawryk said Friday. “It’s unfortunate we had to move them off the outdoor rink, but they’re still playing and they got to come in and be part of the Bell Capital Cup.”
The organizing committee had put out a call to all peewee houseleague teams across Canada, asking for 250-word written submissions and short videos supporting why they should be part of Hockey on the Hill.
“In 21/2 weeks or three weeks, we got over 300 entries and we sat in a room of 12 people on a panel and went through every single one of them and selected our winners, which was not easy by any means,” Lawryk said. “It was a heck of a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be.”
All 32 teams received a set of commemorative Canada 150 jerseys in provincial and territorial colours, while travel costs and accommodations in Ottawa were covered for players and team officials.
“The concept is really cool and that’s our shiny new toy for this year,” Lawryk said.
Playing in Ottawa and for their province was a brand-new experience for some teams, including a hastily assembled girls team that made the trek down from the Yukon.
“We barely have enough players to put together one team,” said cocoach Pat Tobler. “The challenging part was to find enough girls to make the trip.
“We brought all the girls from Whitehorse together on a local pond and put a video together explaining why we wanted to go. One of the big reasons was just to play against other girls because we just don’t experience that where we are.”
That was certainly the case for Kalina Morrison.
“I’ve never played in a hockey tournament before, so this has been a lot of fun,” she said, adding she had only played a handful of games in her life in total. “I only started playing hockey 10 months ago. I always wanted to play, but I also do 15 hours of gymnastics a week, so I didn’t have a lot of time.”
Teammate Tess Morin, from Dawson, about six hours from Whitehorse, said she was enjoying the experience, too.
“It’s been really fun and I’m staying with two of my best friends in my hotel room. I really like it,” Morin said.
The Yukon girls team won its first two games by a combined 11-1 score, so despite a 5-0 loss to Alberta Friday morning they remained in good position to make the playoff round.
From the other end of the country, New Brunswick is being represented by the Miramichi Panthers, who already have two tournament titles this season. They improved to 3-0 in this event with a 4-1 win Friday over the Northwest Territories.
“It was really awesome that we actually got to come to Ottawa. I’m having a lot of fun and I hope that we can win this tournament,” said Madeline Woods, who picked up an assist in Friday’s contest. “I just like playing hockey and we won all our games, so I like that.”
Teammate Hillary Wood has had a lot to do with the success of the team from Miramichi with 18 goals in three games, though she seems to lack any superstar ego.
“I just like hanging out with the girls, being able to play against Alberta and teams like that and being able to play in the country’s capital,” Wood said. “I like that we get to play teams that we don’t normally get to play against and play for New Brunswick. It’s a lot of fun.”
The first three division finals of the 2017 Bell Capital Cup were played Friday and all three had some local flavour, and all three ended in shutouts.
The Gloucester Rangers Green won the minor peewee AA title with a 1-0 shutout win over the Ottawa Valley Silver Seven at the Cavanagh Sensplex.
In the minor peewee A game, also at the Cavanagh Sensplex, the Stittsville Rams collected a 4-0 win over the West Carleton Crusaders.
Finally at the Richcraft Sensplex, the North York Storm were crowned girls peewee AA champions and completed the trio of shutouts with a 3-0 whitewash of the Nepean Wildcats.
The fun continues across the region Saturday, including nine division championship finals at Minto Skating Centre.
The concept is really cool and that’s our shiny new toy for this year.