BR and St. Mary Teams Gear Up for OFSAA Hockey Championships
By Larry Moko
The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic Athletic Association will be represented by two teams at this week's OFSAA boys' hockey championships.
At the AAA level in Windsor, the Bishop Ryan Celtics are seeded ninth among the 16 high school squads vying for the tournament title.
And in Sudbury, the St. Mary Crusaders have qualified in the A/AA division. St. Mary is ranked 12th in that 16-team field.
Both competitions run from March 18-20.
"I expected to be seeded somewhere in the middle of the pack," Bishop Ryan coach Justin Cannon. "So, where we are is pretty good."
A 6-0 loss to Milton's Bishop Reding Royals at the recent Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference final may have affected BR's ranking slightly.
"I think if we had won that game we'd probably be around No. 6 or 7," Cannon said. "But we didn't need to win (to qualify for OFSAA) so we rested six or seven starters including our starting goaltender. We thought OFSAA was more important than trying to take that one."
Bishop Reding won the silver medal at OFSAA last year.
The Celtics started their provincial playoff run by capturing the HWCAA championship. And that was followed by a 3-2 victory in overtime at the GHAC semifinal against Oakville's Holy Trinity Titans.
"I'd say on this team, more than any other I've had, the players have a lot of familiarity with each other," the BR coach said. "We have bunches of players that play together in their Double A (rep) leagues and with us. That's a huge benefit. It helps to put lines together."
In addition to Reding (7) and top-seeded St. Martin from Peel, the Windsor AAA event also includes I.E. Weldon (4), St. Benedict (8), Frontenac (10) Nantyr Shores (3), Brooklin (2), Uxbridge (5), St. Joseph-Scollard Hall (15), Waterdown (14), St. Anne (6), Father Redmond (11), Mother Teresa (16) and St. Jean Brebeuf (13).
The Celtics are in Pool D with Lindsay's Weldon Wildcats, the host city's St. Anne Saints and North Bay's St. Joseph-Scollard Hall Bears.
As for the Crusaders, they qualified for OFSAA in Sudbury by way of a 5-2 victory over the Aldershot Aces in a GHAC championship. During the regular season against all schools with AAA populations, St. Mary was 2-5-1, losing a quarter-final, 4-3 in overtime, to the Bishop Tonnos Titans.
"It doesn't really make a lot of difference," St. Mary coach Jason Kokoski said of his team's seeding. "We've been to OFSAA a few times now and all the teams are really good.
"It's hard for them (the seeding committee) to boil it down. Teams are from all across Ontario."
Kokoski's teams have been to OFSAA seven times since 2012.
"This is one of the youngest teams we've had in a very long time," he said. "About half of our team is in Grade 10. I thought we played pretty well this year for being so young."
Other schools entered are: Brighton Northumberland (16); Belleville St. Theresa (1); Guelph St. James (11); Walkerton Sacred Heart (9); Renfrew St. Joseph's (5); Orillia Patrick Fogarty (14); Courtice Holy Trinity (3); Hearst, (15); Sault Ste. Marie Korah (7); Sudbury St. Charles (8); Niagara Falls Saint Paul (13); Fort Frances (10); Belle River (6); Essex (2); St. Thomas Parkside (4).
In pool play, St. Mary will face the Korah Colts, St. Theresa Titans and Patrick Fogarty Flames.
"We'll play as well as we can in our three games and see where it all leaves us at the end," Kokoski said.
In terms of history, neither St. Mary nor Bishop Ryan has ever brought home a gold medal in hockey. The Crusaders, however, have won a silver.
"Our best year was 2017," Kokoski said. "Up in Fort Frances we lost the final in a shootout.
"We had a really good team in 2018, too. We were the first seed but we ended up losing in the quarter-finals. They were our two best years going to OFSAA."
Photos by R.F. (Bob) Butrym, RFB Sport Photography
