West Island’s best young hockey players compete

SIL Weekend also includes appearance by former Hab

The annual SIL Weekend for local AA hockey teams will take place this weekend at the Dollard Civic Centre.

All four associations from the Lions Structure Integrée — Lakeshore, West Island, Deux Rives and Dollard/ Versant Ouest — will be part of a fourgame showcase event Sunday.

The opening two peewee AA games feature the Lakeshore Panthers vs. the DDO/Versant Vipers at 11:15 a.m., followed by the West Island Royals vs. Deux Rives Dauphins at 12:45 p.m.

The bantam AA teams play next with Lakeshore vs. West Island at 2:15 p.m., then Deux Rives vs. Vipers at 3:45 p.m.

Local hockey fans are welcome to come out and watch the best young peewees and bantam hockey players in the West Island, said SIL head Gerry Gomez, who replaced Yves Lacelle this year.

Former Canadiens enforcer Chris Nilan has been invited to speak to the players on Saturday about a wide variety of hockey-related topics.

“We thought having Chris speak to the boys about bullying and other topics would really add something different to the program this year,” Gomez said.

Peewee AA players will participate in the Best Buy skills testing Saturday, while bantam AA players will undergo off-ice testing. Some bantam BB players will be included by invitation.

All SIL players are invited to attend Friday night’s midget AAA game between the Lac St. Louis Lions and Châteauguay Grenadiers in Dollard.

The Grenadiers form the other structure integrée within Lac St-Louis region. The four Grenadiers structure integrée teams — Trois Lacs, VerdunLaSalle, Suroit and Beauval — will do battle Sunday at Jacques Lemaire Arena in LaSalle.

Hockey Quebec is conducting similar SIL weekends across the province, said Gomez, who will also hold an information session for parents of SIL players Sunday. He will explain the objectives of SIL and Hockey Quebec’s U-13, U-14 and U-15 programs.