Posted By: uuhadood

Sunday, April 23, 2023

 

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KELOWNA - The Jokers Hockey Club hit the road this past week for a tournament in British Columbia's interior. And in what has become typical style for the Funniest Team on Ice, the veteran UUHA squad put some time aside off the ice to raise spirits and lend a hand to some folks in need.

 

In this case, the team popped by Kelowna's Karis Support Society to help out with some maintenance and improvement tasks, while providing some laughs, entertainment and support for the moms and kids who benefit from the services offered by the transformative addiction and mental health recovery centre. Check out the nifty news item from castanet.net journalist Brayden Ursel here.

 

Later in the week, Jokers forward and Canadian comedy icon Sean Cullen performed a post-tourney stand-up show at Kelowna venue, Dakoda's, the proceeds of which benefitted local charity, Mamas for Mamas. For more info on the excellent work that organization performs, click here.

 

Way to go, Jokers!

 

Posted By: uuhadood

Sunday, April 16, 2023

 

TORONTO - The Wheatfield Souldiers have claimed the 2023 UUHA Championship Cup. The team did so by defeating the Toronto Hack by a score of 5-2 this past Saturday night at Upper Canada College, bringing an end to the 2022/23 UUHA hockey season in the process. 

 

Earlier the same evening, the Jokers prevailed over the Humiliation in the league's Bronze Medal Game, shutting out the Black Wizards by a score of 2-0. Meanwhile, the Gas Station Islanders posted a decisive Consolation Final victory, blanking the Brockton Rockets 6-0.

 

Following that contest, GSI scoring leader Dominic Chartier was named the league's Most Valuable Player of the 2022/23 Regular Season. Though only posting a single goal and an assist on Saturday night, and absent for the Isles' earlier Playoff game (a 5-2 quarterfinal loss to the Hack), Chartier registered 17 goals and 8 assists during the Regular Season, giving him 25 points in 11 games. The MVP honour is determined by ranked-ballot votes cast by league GM's. Runners up for this year's award included Islanders goaltender Joseph Steinman, along with Brockton Rockets goalie, Jonathan Dickson. Steinman, incidentally, was the first of two goalies to register shutouts on the night. 

 

Chartier opened the scoring in Saturday's 7:00 pm game, potting an unassisted marker just three minutes in, then set up Tim Vesely midway through the 2nd period, making the score 2-0. Seth Singer sprang Brian Neven three minutes later on the power-play, before both of those players assisted on Vesely's second goal early in the 3rd. Neven and Vesely would score again before the final horn, making it 6-0 Islanders at game's end. The three-goal effort is believed to be Vesely's first-ever Playoff hat-trick in his two decades as a Gas Station Islander.

 

Scoring was limited to just one team in the evening's second contest, too, as the Jokers blanked the Humiliation 2-0, earning the Bronze Gnome by doing so. Jokers vets Charlie Rishor and Ted Bisaillion scored in the 1st and 3rd periods, respectively, with Steve Levine, Rishor and Tyler Stewart earning assists. The Funniest Team on Ice nearly doubled the Black Wizards in the shot department, landing 20 on net to their opponent's 11 tries. Burke Lawrence earned the shutout. For the Humiliation, the game was the second consecutive in which they were unable to put a single goal up on the board. Despite having won the President's Trophy for the best Regular Season record, the team did not score a goal in the Playoffs, having been defeated 3-0 by the Hack in the semifinals.

 

And it was the Hack who drew first blood in the night's last game, the 2023 UUHA Championship Final vs. the Wheatfield Souldiers, as Chris Cacciotti got his own rebound on an odd-man rush to put his side up 1-0 midway through the opening frame. But at the 9:01 mark of the 2nd period, Souldiers forward Kyle Welton would convert a blue-line feed from Shawn Star to even things up. Just over five minutes later, Jon Dahl (who had also assisted on Welton's goal) snapped a rising wrister over the left shoulder of goaltender Aaron Brophy to put Burton's Boys on top by a goal. The 3rd period would showcase an offensive burst from Souldiers rookie Herbie Barnes, who potted an early insurance marker (assisted by Scott Pettus and Jon Weier) about a minute in, before Cacciotti combined with Dominic Hanlon for his second of the match, making it a one-goal game once more. Five minutes later, though, Barnes made good on a rebound off an Eric Toth attempt, reestablishing a thin cushion. Then, with under half-a-minute remaining and the faceoff back in the Hack zone (negating the empty-net option), Barnes corralled a loose, net-side puck, deked around goalie Brophy, who had left his crease to play the puck up the ice, and popped in his third goal of the period, causing the clock to run out the final 17 seconds of the game.

 

Barnes, whose efforts earned him 1st-star-of-the-game honours, was among more than half-a-dozen Souldiers without a previous UUHA Championship to their credit. he is joined in that novel distinction by the likes of fellow forwards Welton, Dahl, Brian Bentley and Mark Jones (who was present but did not dress for the game due to an upper body injury), along with defencemen Star and Marc Couture, and goaltender Tim Walker. So despite this being the Souldiers sixth UUHA Championship, it was the first for more than half of the team. The most recent previous title earned by the squad was in 2018. 

 

Posted By: uuhadood

Sunday, April 9, 2023

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TORONTO - The Big Stars lived up to their billing this past Saturday at McCormick Arena The mixed-squad tourney team took a 2-1-0 round-robin record into the Championship Final at the 2023 Super Cup, and then took it to the Rebellion by a lopsided tally of 5-1. The one-day event (sponsored by Big Stick Custom Hockey Jerseys) was played out from 1:00 pm to 6:30 on April 8 at the venerable Brockton Village barn.

 

Backstopped by goaltender Glynn Broughton, the Rebellion qualified for the Final with an identical round-robin record to the Big Stars, and were the only team to defeat the eventual champs in the early goings, bettering them 3-1 in Game 4 of the tournament, played a full two hours prior to the Final. However, by the time the two teams renewed acquaintances, the Rebellion had just played back-to-back games, with only a 10-minute break before the crowning match. The Big Stars, by comparison, had enjoyed an hour-long break leading up to the game.

 

Despite that disparity, it was the Rebellion who scored first in the Final, with Brockton Rockets veteran Oliver Sutherns combining with his son Jacob Sutherns and Gas Station Islanders sharpshooter Dominic Chartier to solve Big Stars goalie David Bennett. It would be the only goal the young keeper would allow in the abridged two-period Final, though, as the Big Stars amped things up with five unanswered tallies. Acting team GM Jim Frolick drew his side even just over a minute after the Rebellion goal, converting a feed from Cody Symes with 2:47 remaining in the 1st period. The balance of Big Stars scoring was handled by the Humiliation's Sean Morrison (who potted the game-winner less than a minute after the tying marker), Jeff Kuchma (2) and Adam Steffler.

 

Big Stars goaltender Bennett was later named tournament MVP over beer and tacos at a cozy tournament wind-up event at Steadfast Brewing. 

The Super Cup-winning Big Stars lineup also featured Wheatfield Souldiers forwards Brian Bentley and Scott Pettus, Imperials veteran Lee Finch, Joe Bourrie, Mike Cerny, Adam Fell, Nic Frolick and Colter Steffler. Original Big Stars GM, Mike Frolick, was unable to attend the tournament, but was toasted in absentia at the windup just the same.

 

Remarkably, every single Big Stars player finished the Super Cup tourney with at least a point, demonstrating the depth of talent in black sweaters that afternoon. Morrison led the squad with 4 round-robin assists and a goal in the Final, while Bentley and Kuchma earned 3 goals each. Cerny had a goal and 2 assists.

 

Rebellion points leaders were Chartier (2G, 1A) and Jacob Sutherns (1G, 2A), while Nathan Sutherns finished the day with a pair of goals, as well. Ben Wilcox carried the biggest load for Team Impulse!, picking up a rio of goals, while Courtney Stevens fronted the Screamin' Jays offence with a pair of goals and an assist.