Captains from C.B.S. leading teams in Maritime junior final
Lee Dower’s Timberwolves squaring off against Kyle Tibbo’s Bearcats
The 2017 Maritime Hockey League final won’t finish up until Wednesday at the earliest, but here’s something that can be guaranteed: the captain of the winning team will be a Newfoundlander. What’s more, he’ll be from Conception Bay South.
The Miramichi Timberwolves, captained by Lee Dower, and Truro Bearcats, whose captain is Kyle Tibbo, squared off in Game 5 of the best-of-seven MHL final in Miramichi, N.B., on Monday night. Both Dower and Tibbo are from C.B.S.
The series was tied 2-2 entering Monday’s game, with the home team having won each time in a matchup that has alternated game to game between the two communities.
Game 6 is Wednesday in Truro, N.S.
Tibbo and Dower, who both turn 21 this year (Dower’s birthday is Wednesday), aren’t just providing leadership for their teams. They are also producing points. Tibbo, a forward who led the entire Maritime league with 47 goals this season and was named the league’s player of the year, is once more his team’s topper when it comes to playoff tallies, with eight in 14 games. He has 17 points in all.
Dower leads all MHL defencemen in playoff scoring with 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in 12 games. Right behind him is another Timberwolves rearguard — and yet another player from C.B.S. — Michael Constantine, who has three goals and 10 helpers.
Constantine, 20, was revealed as the MHL defenceman of the year last month, when he and Tibbo were also named firstteam all-stars in the junior A circuit.
There is a third blueliner from Newfoundland on the Timberwolves. Lucas Mckay of Deer Lake has no points in eight playoff games
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A couple of other players from this province are still playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs.
Nathan Noel of St. John’s is a centre with the Saint John Sea Dogs, who are taking on the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in one QMJHL semifinal, while Mat- thew Grouchy of Labrador City is a forward with the Charlottetown Islanders. who are facing the Blainville-bosibriand Armada in the other best-of-seven series.
Both are tied at 1-1 heading into Games 3 tonight in Chicoutimi and suburban Montreal.
The 19-year-old Noel, a draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks has six points, all assists, in 10 playoff contests. The 17-year-old Grouchy, one of just three rookies seeing regular action with the Islanders in the post-season, has a goal and an assist in nine playoff games.
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Luke Mccaw of St. John’s missed out of a Central Canadian Hockey League championship when he and the Ottawa Junior Senators lost to the Carleton Place Canadiens in a bestof-seven final that ended with the Canadiens winning Game 5 Sunday night.
Mccaw, a forward who turns 21 next month, had five goals and eight assists in 14 playoff games for the Junior Senators. He has expressed a desire to play at the collegiate level next season, but hasn’t yet publicly committed to a school.
Mccaw and Dower were teammates on the 2011-12 St. John’s Privateers major midget team.