Vees: Eastern Ontario hockey related-humour

It would be remiss not to pass along this gem from venerable Kingston sports scribe Pat Kennedy about the hometown Voyageurs vying to host the RBC Cup, the national Junior A championship, in some future spring:

"One obstacle to scale might be the availability of the K-Rock Centre, which is contractually obligated to save springtime ice time in the event the Kingston Frontenacs make the playoffs someday and — this is really stretching it — advance throughout."

(later on)

"... Cornwall hosted the 2008 RBC, prompting (Voyageurs owner Gregg) Rosen to remark that 'if Cornwall can host it, we can certainly host it. We have more to offer than Cornwall.' "

Cornwall-bashing is the ultimate low-hanging fruit, but that's neither here nor there. Here is hoping a bid by the Voyageurs for the Dudley Hewitt Cup (Central Canadian championship) or RBC Cup wouldn't get the boot before any other team's, which has been known to happen.

There is the potential to have a lot of cheap fun with the shinny study-in-contrasts, Champs vs. Chumps, which is unfolding in K-town.

Coach Evan Robinson's Vees, by reaching the semi-final at the RBC Cup, finished as the fourth-best Tier II Junior A team in the country. The Frontenacs finished with the fourth-worst record of any major junior team in Canada.* Oh, and the Frontenacs' floundering has contributed to the $43-million arena becoming a political pandora's box for city council and Mayor Harvey Rosen, the brother of the owner of the other junior hockey team which has won the hearts of some many sports likers. Good stuff.

To be fair, Harvey Rosen is great compared to other eastern Ontario mayors one could name.

As previously noted, the Vees' Ontario Junior Hockey League is realigning again, so next season they'll have Buffalo, New York, in their conference but not the significantly closer Wellington Dukes. The new Ontario Conference will consist of:

• Buffalo, the league's lone American entry;
• The cottage country teams: Aurora, Collingwood, Couchiching, Huntsville;
• The NOT teams (as in North of Toronto): Bramalea, Brampton, Georgetown, Milton, Mississauga, Oakville, Vaughan, Villanova (located in King City)
• Trenton, which used to be in Port Hope
  

Don't go looking for any geographical logic. The subtext is the OJHL has tension between franchises which are run more like a Junior A team in the West and a few which have Toronto-itis. The latter are loath to straying too far away from the GTA to play and/or are bankrolled by some rich hockey dad so his son and his buddies can play close to home. The teams in the new conference also want to use fewer 20-year-olds, as a selling point to get younger players who are going for NCAA scholarships (as the Kingston Whig-Standard reported, the Vees only used six 20-year-olds this season, three less than the max; one wonders if they wouldn't take advantage of this by recruiting overagers who would then play for Queen's the following season).

Robinson and his players have been thanked more than enough for their run. They don't need to be told that they renewed a lot of hometown pride which had lain dormant during Doug Springer and Larry Mavety's decade of dismalness. The hope, speaking as an expat, is that one day the Vees' success won't be a jumping-off point for to make light of the Limestone City's Light Brigade. Wait 'til next year, eh?

Related:
Vees' league takes on new look (Kingston Whig-Standard)

Vees for victory: Encapsulating the RBC Cup

Well, they did it, as you know: The Kingston Kimco Voyageurs prevailed 4-1 over the Fort William North Stars in the final of the Dudley Hewitt Cup in Schreiber, Ont., on Saturday night, meaning there is another chapter or two to add to the best Kingston junior hockey story in many a month of Sundays.

For alliteration fans, coach Evan Robinson's Vees' toughest competition will be the likely favourite, the Vernon Vipers and host Victoria Grizzlies at the May 2-10 RBC Cup Junior A national championship. It's a mere 4,800-km jaunt from Eastern Ontario.

The Grizzlies are owned by Tampa Bay Lightning co-owner Len Barrie (grrrrrrr, indeed) and coached by former NHLer Geoff Courtnall. The Summerside Western Capitals won the Eastern Canada title by beating Dieppe 3-2 in double OT on Sunday. Defending champion Humboldt broke the hearts of the Portage Terriers faithful with a Game 7 comeback on the road in the Western region, which stings for a certain someone who used to spend an unholy portion of his paycheque at the Portage Centennial Arena concession stand (and the bar at the curling club, don't forget).

Jarrett Burton got the game-winner for the Vees on Saturday 76 seconds into the third (with Jeff Blackburn assisting). Blackburn, whose mom Janet drove all the way from Newmarket to cheer on her son, scored himself three minutes later (with Burton assisting).

Below the jump, a look at the Vees' foes.

VERNON VIPERS (Pacific champions)

• Coach — Mark Ferner
  
  
• Team in a box — The Vipers have "by far the biggest and strongest six-man defence corps we've played against," according to Grande Prairie coach Mike Vandecamp, whose team was swept by the Vipers in the Pacific region championship (Vernon Morning Star, April 22). The Vipers have allowed only 34 goals across a 21-game playoff run, during which they have only lost twice in regulation time. They had a 2.40 team goals-against average in the regular season, tops in the 16-team BCHL, and are 45-1-1 this season when leading after two periods (it's an annoying stat, but it's true).
  
  The back end is headed by aptly named Kyle Bigos, who's 6-foot-5, 230 lbs. and headed to Merrimack in the NCAA; Cameron Brodie is committed to Colgate, a good hockey school, while Cody Ikkala is going to West Point. Bigos and 6-2, 205-lb. d-man Kevin Kraus are both from California.
  
  
• Key guys — Twins Connor and Kellen Jones, who are both headed to Quinnipiac, have been among the team's top scorers all season long, although both seem to two-way forwards. One name that jumps out while scanning the roster is Sahir Gill, a 1992-birthdate forward with some offensive creativity, not unlike the Vees' Brock Higgs. Gill has 56 points in 71 games (not counting the series vs. Grande Prairie). They're pretty loaded.
  
  
• League track record — Teams from the B.C. league are 18-15 at the past 10 RBCs and all told, a team from the Pacific region (B.C. and Alberta) has made it to the final in 11-of-13 years since 1996.
  
  
• History at the RBC Cup — The Vipers are seeking to bring Vernon its fifth national championship in the past 20 years, which fairly qualifies the franchise as a powerhouse. They won in 1990, '91, '96 and '99.
  
  
• Face Kingston — May 7, 5 p.m. (Kingston's final round-robin game)
  
  
• External factors worth making a big deal out of — Their uniforms are styled along the lines of the NHL's Atlanta Thrashers. Bad things happen to teams which wear the kit of Bettman-era expansion teams (the Vees used to have similar uniforms to the Blue Jackets, but have returned a more traditional red, white and blue look and it's been all cake and ice cream since, not coincidentally).

VICTORIA GRIZZLIES (Host)

• Coach — Geoff Courtnall, an example of the long-time NHLer who returns to his hometown to coach his puck-chasing progeny (son Justin Courtnall is on the team).
  
  
• Team in a box — The Grizzlies essentially took all of April off, since the host team was eliminated by Powell River in the BCHL semi-final series on March 31. The Grizzlies come off like the classic team that hits the ice with their owner's bankroll all over them. After being an also-ran last season, they brought in reinforcements, such as former North Dakota Fighting Sioux goalie Anthony Grieco, cut their goals-against by 30 and finished with a league-high 90 points before being bounced early in the playoffs.
  
  
• Key guys — Going by the numbers, the Grizzlies are a balanced team that keeps a tight lid on their own end (only 159 goals allowed in the regular season). They have a playmaking centre, Derek Lee (12 goals, but 47 assists), who's committed to play college hockey at Wisconsin. Justin Courtnall, who is the spitting image of his old man, is bound for NCAA champion Boston University next season; his 63 points (22 G-41A) in the regular season led the team. He's had only two goals in the playoffs, though.
  
  Victoria also draws scoring punch from Trevor Hertz (36 goals, 72 points for two teams this season) and Jonathan Milhouse (42 points in 42 games), who was picked up in mid-season after beginning the year in the WHL. Their No. 1 defenceman, Lee Baldwin, had 54 points off the blue line. He's headed to Alaska-Anchorage in the WCHA, the top college hockey conference.
  
  Kingston fans might remember Grieco playing for the Wellington Dukes in 2005-06, when Welly was Kingston's rival. He went to a big-time college team, North Dakota, then was in the OHL for a season with Mississauga before heading out west.
  
  
• League track record — See above.
  
  
• History at the RBC Cup — Like the Vees, they're first-timers at the tournament. Victoria was a WHL city until around 1990. They were a mid-pack team for the most part until this season.
  
  
• Face Kingston — May 3, 10 p.m.
  
  
• External factors worth making a big deal out of — Spring hockey in Victoria is something a novelty, according to the Times-Colonist's Cleve Dheenshaw. The ECHL's Salmon Kings made it to the second round of the playoffs last season, marking the first time a local team had played a game in May since 1981. Can anyone think of another university town in Canada with a lot of British architecture that has a similarly barren history? Can't think of one.
  
  Geoff Courtnall is also pals with Pamela Anderson, who was on some TV show called Baywatch. Never heard of it.
  

SUMMERSIDE WESTERN CAPITALS (Eastern Canada champions)

• Coach — Kenny MacDougall
  
  
• Team in a box — Summerside won the Eastern Canada title with a double-overtime 3-2 win over Dieppe on Sunday, with overager Mike McIsaac, who'll be the oldest player at the tournament (he was a New Year's baby in 1988), scoring the winner.
  
  Summerside was dominant at each end of the ice in the Maritime Junior A Hockey League regular season, finishing plus-100 in goal differential, then lost only one game during three playoff rounds. They lost to Dieppe in the regionals, but turned the tables in the final.
  
  The Maritime league tends to be an overager's league. The Caps' five scorers, Brad Smith, Chad Locke, Brett Gallant, McIsaac and d-man Spencer Corcoran (58 assists in 52 reg.-season games), are all overagers. Five players had at least 200 penalty minutes during the regular season, which seems a little excessive.
  
  
• Key guys — The aforementioned veterans seem to lead the way. Goalie Alex Dupuis has played every minute in the post-season.
  
  
• League track record — Maritime Junior A Hockey League teams are 11-10 at the tournament in the past decade, but that includes the Halifax Oland Exports' 6-0 run back in 2002. No team from the league has even made it out of round-robin play since.
  
  
• History at the RBC Cup — The Caps are the cradle of erstwhile Columbus Blue Jackets coaches. They won the RBC back in 1997 when Gerard Gallant was behind the bench, and hosting the tournament in '89 when current Rogers Sportsnet and FAN 590 host Doug MacLean, Kinger's hero, was steering the ship.
  
  
• Face Kingston — Monday, May 4, 5 p.m.
  
  
• External factors worth making a big deal out of — The Western Capitals will be travelling more than 6,000 km for the tournament, which makes the Vees' roughly 4,800-km trip seem like a day trip by comparison. The current group of coaches, players and hangers-on are no doubt good Joes, but Kinger is not a big fan of MacLean's turn as a sports talk radio personality, which is enough reason to taunt and boo them until your throat is sore.
  
  Also, remember Paul Dorsey, the goalie whom Kingston Frontenacs GM-for-life Larry Mavety burned a player card on back at Christmastime? He finished the season in Summerside, but hasn't played a minute in the playoffs. There's a story.

HUMBOLDT BRONCOS (Western champion)

• Coach — Dean Brockman
  
  
• Team in a box — Defending national champions did it the hard way in the ANAVET Cup, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit vs. the Portage Terriers, with a four-goal comeback in Game 7 overtime win on the road. Portage was up three goals near the halfway point of the third period when the Terriers' Cory More got a five-minute major penalty for kneeing. Humboldt scored twice on the power play, forced OT on Scott Schroeder's goal (and fourth point of the night) with 47 seconds left before Nick Kalnicki scored just less than six minutes into the extra session for the 5-4 win. Point being, Humboldt had to be awfully good to pull off such hockey larceny.
  
  Humboldt won more games (45) in the regular season than the OHL's Kingston Frontenacs have in the past two (41), winning the SJHL regular-season title by 15 points. Eleven players got on the scoresheet in the Portage series, so secondary scoring doesn't appear to be a huge problem.
  
  
• Key guys — Like Vernon, Humboldt boasts a set of twins up front in Schroeder (10 points in the ANAVET Cup series) and his brother, Steven Schroeder. Defenceman Brady Wacker, a Rafalski-lite type (5-foot-7, 155 lbs.) who's due to play at Bemidji State, which just went to the NCAA Frozen Four, also had 10 points in the seven games vs. Portage.
  
  Matthew Kirzinger (Ferris State commit) has consistently been among the team's top scorers. He's also from Leroy, Sask., the namesake for Brent Butt's character on Corner Gas.
  
  
• League track record — No league's teams have played more games (53) at the nationals over the past 10 seasons, with squads from the "SJ" owning a 26-24 vs. outside competition (in 1999 and 2001, the league had two teams taking part, host and Western champion). Humboldt won 2003 and '08, sandwiched around the Weyburn Red Wings' victory in '05, while the Yorkton Terriers and Kindersley Klippers have each reached the final in recent years.
  
  
• History at the RBC Cup — Oddly enough, in each of Humboldt's run through the tournament, they went 2-2 in the round-robin before winning the Saturday semi-final and Sunday championship game, including a 1-0 win over Camrose last May in Cornwall.
  
  
• Face Kingston — May 6, 5 p.m.
  
  
• External factors worth making a big deal out of — The whole beating-out-Portage thing (two years in a row!) is going to be tough to work past, but let bygones be bygones.
  
  Spare a thought for the Terriers, whose coach, Blake Spiller, is one of the best people who's ever breathed air.
  
  I like to say those days at The Daily Graphic, from 2002-04, were a great time professionally, a subsequent stint at the Simcoe Reformer (2004-06) was a great time socially and Ottawa ... well, at least the money is better.

Vees' victory sends them to Victoria

A double JB would be apropos as a celebratory libation, since Jarrett Burton and Jeff Blackburn got the big third-period goals that put the Kingston Kimco Voyageurs off to the RBC Cup.

The Vees' prevailed 4-1 tonight over the Fort William North Stars in the final of the Dudley Hewitt Cup in Schreiber, Ont., meaning there is another chapter or two to add to the best Kingston sports story in many a month of Sundays. Burton got the game-winner 76 seconds into the third (with Blackburn assisting). Blackburn, whose mom Janet drove all the way from Newmarket to cheer on her son, scored himself three minutes later (with Burton assisting).

Coach Evan Robinson's Vees will join the host Victoria Grizzlies and the likely tourney favourite Vernon Vipers at the May 2-10 RBC Cup in the B.C. capital. Their first game is May 3 vs. the host Grizzlies, a 10 p.m. Eastern start on a Sunday night — lovely. The other two regional championships are still ongoing. The Portage Terriers, whom yours truly once covered as a reporter, photographer and TV colour analyst (simultaneously), headed to Game 7 in the Western final after Humboldt won Game 6 in overtime on Saturday. It was the third OT game in the series; the visiting team has won all three.

Vees for victory, no matter what

There's a massive outbreak of VD — Vees Delirium — in the Kingston area. It is only sporting to become a fellow carrier.

The schedule is set for the Ontario Junior Hockey League championship series between the Kingston Kimco Voyageurs and the Oakville Blades. Sports broadcasting titan Tim Cunningham did note on the radio the other day that KIX 93.5 FM is planning to broadcast the games, which would be manna from the airwaves since the Vees are turning fans away from the Invista Centre.

The point is it's been a long time since Kingston has really had a playoff march that truly transcended the team's fanbase, probably since the Queen's Golden Gaels football team won its last Vanier Cup in 1992.

It could all go boom over the next two weeks. Oakville is defending league champion. It had to come through the loaded Central Division, whose creation took two long-time Kingston nemeses, the Cobourg Cougars and Wellington Dukes, out of the playoff picture for the Vees. That doesn't matter too much.

The hometown is overdue. Nineteen ninety-two, when Queen's won the Vanier, laying a 31-0 beatdown on Saint Mary's in the championship game and setting a record for defensive efficiency which can only be tied, never broken, not even by the Laval Rouge et Or, much less the Western Mustangs, was a long time ago. I was in Grade 10; good friend Neil Acharya was in Grade 9. Kinger would have been in kindergarten. Some of the current Vees were born in 1992.

There's probably not a chance in hell of seeing a game live. The ice pad the Vees use at the Invista Centre, a four-plex, only holds about 1,000 fans. The team has ruled out moving its games, since they don't want to upset the karma that's been portioned out by the cosmos as they've ripped through the first four rounds of the playoffs.

Anyway, by gar, it's been a while, too long for K-Town. It's like this with all smaller cities, but you tend to see your contributions to the athletic ruling glass bring bring glory to a much larger population centre. In one case, the figure skater Tanith Belbin, it ended up being another country.

Kingston, no nice way to say it, is a place where one can get locked into becoming crustified. Everything its detractors say is pretty much true. It is a staid government/university town where the dominant colour is grey, with all the limestone buildings, the rainy autumns and an aging population. It's the windiest place on earth when the gusts blow in off Lake Ontario. Life moves slow, prospects can be few and far between and there's an intractable town-gown tension between the locals and the blond-headed Biffs and Buffys who tend to matriculate at Queen's.

It's also home. It's not an easy place to get on any bandwagon, so when one comes along, you take the ride. Seing that sense of elation, the joy of accomplishment, the joy of a team going farther than it ever has before, the town behind them and the sky was the limit. Better yet, thanks in part to realignment (and the league is re-aligning further next season), the Vees didn't even have to face Wellington, which lost to Oakville in a seven-game semi-final series.

Can the Vees do it, who knows? Let the Legitimate Press take up that question. They're there. Kingston, in the small world of junior hockey, is a place to be, for a change.

(KIX 93.5 carries Senators games. Game 1 Saturday in Oakville is the same time as a Philadelphia-Ottawa game which will be aired regionally on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, so the station's plans are not clear.)

Junior hockey is uncool; what are you gonna do about it?

Reducing a sporting issue to a spitting contest between Toronto media personalities is an easy way out, even when it is Mike Toth and Steve Simmons.

Junior hockey players get the rock-star treatment for two weeks during the world juniors and are afterthoughts 24 hours later, especially in the GTA. Toth, of Rogers Sportsnet and the FAN 590, had his say a week ago today. Sun Media's Simmons, on the following day, had a column headlined, "Apathy greets juniors," which began, "It is Thursday night at the Powerade Centre and for every seat that is occupied at least five are left empty."

(You can almost picture Rainn Wilson as a Rolling Stone editor in Almost Famous -- "Mmmmm, dark. Lively.")

Simmons' column was referred to as a "disgrace" during a rather pointed editorial reply during a subsequent Rogers OHL broadcast. Please leave personalities out of this, since it's a good topic (and our own Duane Rollins made a point to go see for himself when the Brampton Battalion and Mississauga St. Michael's Majors played at 12 noon on a weekday so classes of schoolchildren could witness major junior hockey in all its splendour).

Simmons was blasted a bit. Presumably some people would not mind hearing him accused of ripping the attendance when he had "never been in the Brampton Centre prior to that game."



That being said, Toth at least dared to run his hand along the fourth wall of every story about low attendance at OHL games in Toronto -- namely, how well these franchises do to turn first- and second-generation Canadians on to hockey? Simmons, no disrespect, goes on about "tak(ing) the easy highway drive for the least expensive entertainment you'll find everywhere," which seems to gloss over the fact that most Toronto sports fans, especially younger ones, rely on public transit when they're going to see the Raptors, Leafs, Blue Jays or TFC. It also assumes people who live close by Brampton's arena, which is located in a huge South Asian enclave, won't.

It's not even apparent that those transit options are handy for either the Battalion or Majors. Toth, who granted has come on a little strong on the subject in the past, at least waves hello to the elephant in the room, the question of growing the fanbase:

"Toronto is completely multi-cultural and sporting allegiances include everything from soccer to cricket. Brampton and Mississauga also have huge ethnic populations and many people from the two communities have never been inside a hockey rink.

"To their credit, both the Battalion and Majors are reaching out to new Canadians. For example, the two teams staged a special game for school kids earlier this year, featuring a 12.00 p.m. face-off on a Wednesday afternoon."

It is something of a common opinion among younger media types that stepping into an OHL arena often feels like a time warp. The crowd skews older and more homogenous. Between the incessant playing of Jock Jams '95 over the P.A. and the fact Larry Mavety is still GM of the Kingston Frontenacs, it is something straight out of another century.

There's no excuse simply accepting that it won't change. Look at it this way. It's not mandatory you should adopt the favourite sport when you're relatively new to a country. However, if you were a sports-mad Canadian who had relocated to England, what would you check out first: The local soccer team's game, even if it was down in League Two, or a game between the Coventry Blaze and Hull Stingrays?

People look to sports as a cultural touchstone and will turn to what's popular -- socially approved mass movements and such. People come to Canada, they do take to the NHL. It's only right to wonder why that doesn't carry over to the major junior teams in the country's largest city, instead of going on about the Battalion's "disturbingly ugly green uniforms" and inveighing against teenagers being traded in junior hockey (although it's hard argue the players are not pawns in the grand scheme).

At least Toth tried to move the debate forward. It is also worth asking if how the OHL's a keep-your-helmet-on rule, which will probably reduce fighting, might affect attendance. There might short-term pain. It might also change some impressions of the sport among people who are missing the hoser gene that makes you stand up and cheer when two 19-year-olds start whaling on each other at centre ice, although granted, fighting has not been banned.

Point being, the whole low attendance issue is worth getting into. It happens to involve two media personalities who have sizable jeering sections, so there's a little something for the haters, plus knowing that Rainn Wilson was in Almost Famous will win you drinks at bars and cocktail parties.

Related:
A Toronto thing (Mike Toth, sportsnet.ca, Jan. 8)
Previous:
Forcing them to care. That always works (Nov. 13, 2008)

Junior Jungle: Central Divison Pilot Underway

The OPJHL’s new Central Division had its inaugural game Friday night at St. Michael’s College School Arena between the St. Michael’s Buzzers and Markham Waxers. Commissioner Mike McCarron dropped the puck between Buzzer captain, Greg Miller and the Waxers' Giancarlo Iurio took the ceremonial faceoff as the captains from the six other Central Division pilot project teams watched on from the red carpet.

While The Buzzers jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead, the Waxers mounted a fierce comeback with three straight goals before Greg Miller's hat trick goal turned the tide back in the Buzzers favour and they eventually won 7-3. Bryan Black had two goals for the Waxers.

Looking on was Michigan Wolverines associate coach, Mel Pearson. When asked about the new pilot project he said, “It is too early to tell but I am hoping that this division will get other teams (around the league) to buy into the same philosophy and ideas (behind the creation of the Central Division).

The game also marked the debut of Buzzers coach Greg Kelly.

Junior Jungle: UCC gets in the game

Neil Acharya's regular reports on the Provincial Junior Hockey A League has a name, for now.

The OPJHL will welcome a new team into the fold for the 08-09 season -- the Upper Canada Hockey Club will play their first game on the road against the Seguin Bruins, Sept, 6.

Beginning in November, UCHC will begin playing home games at a new arena being constructed on the campus of Upper Canada College.

There is no formal affiliation between the private school and the hockey club. The institution-team relationship will be similar to that of St. Michael's College and the Buzzers.

Until the finishing touches are in place on the new arena, the team will play home games in Ricoh Coliseum. Having to switch home rinks during the course of the season is just one of the obstacles coach Frank Stegnar is going to have to face.

“Forming this team only 2 weeks ago, we have a tremendous job a head of us. Several GMs have contacted me wishing us well but at the same time not to envious of our situation. Being only the second team in OPJHL history to start this late before the season has been a challenge. However, the ownership has been tremendous and supportive of our four-year plan. I do expect the team to use our speed and desire to succeed to our advantage.”

Stegnar was an assistant coach for two seasons with the Toronto Junior Canadiens.
The team will be sporting blue, yellow and red sweaters this season and is slotted in the new Phillips Division.

Some might be quick to assume that because many high powered teams have joined the Central Division, a young team like UCHC may have picked a good year to enter as an expansion team.

Stegnar quickly puts the notion to rest, “I’d say (it is going to be) more of a learning curve and developmental cycle for the young men of UCHC. With strong teams such as Aurora in our division, any mistakes we make will be quickly capitalized on with opponents such as them."

The team was purchased in the off-season by a Toronto-based ownership group. Prior to the purchase, the club was known as the Bancroft Hawks and last played in the OPJHL in 2006-07.