Local team makes history at the Big Nickel tournament

The end of a streak that has lasted nearly a quarter of a century could not have come in a more fitting fashion.

Since 1991, no local team has ever captured a championship at the prestigious Big Nickel Hockey Tournament. That extended run came to an end Sunday afternoon at the Gerry McCrory Countryside Sports Complex.

In an a moment filled with both karma and a great deal of emotion, it would be coach Barry McCrory and the Sudbury Bantam Wolves that would turn the trick, trimming the Timmins Eagles 2-1 in a shootout as captain Billy Moskal netted the game-winning goal.

As most local hockey fans are well aware, the one man most synonymous with the tournament itself was none other than Gerry McCrory, the father of the championship winning coach who passed away in 2008 after years of serving as chairman of the winter hockey tradition.

Adding to the storyline was the drama of the game itself, as Sudbury struggled to solve Timmins goaltender Scott Adams, a local product who signed on with Timmins only after he was cut from the Wolves camp.

Despite outshooting the Eagles by a wide margin, the locals trailed 1-0 after Chad Denault broke the ice for the northern-most NOHL (Northern Ontario "AAA" Hockey League) entry.

Sudbury defenseman Joel Mongeon pulled his team even in the third with a seeing-eye shot that travelled through a maze of bodies, catching the short side just beside the pad of Adams.

A five minute four on four overtime session provided great opportunities for both squads, but Adams and Sudbury puckstopper Alex Vendette were full measure in forcing the shootout, each coming through with several key saves.

After Derek Seguin (Timmins) and Brett Jacklin (Sudbury) converted on the first of the penalty shot attempts, Vendette stymied Denault, giving Moskal a chance to provide the Wolves with a very slight cushion.

"I was beaten twice in the five hole, one in the shootout and one on the breakaway," noted Vendette of his thoughts in facing Denault, the third leading scorer in the NOHL. "They tried to go five-hole again, and I didn't open up that time."

With history in the making, Vendette would run Kapuskasing native Martin Poisson out of room on a deke, giving his team the win. "They are a very physical team," said Vendette. "We had to play our game, use our speed, and we could get it done."

Playing his best hockey of the 2013-2014 season in helping to lead the Minor Bantam Wolves to a league championship crown last March, Vendette acknowledged that it wasn't easy being at the other end of the ice, with his team struggling to find a chink in Adams' armour.

"I was trying to stay focused and hoping in my mind that we were going to pull through eventually," he said. "Scotty is a really good goalie, but everyone gets scored on eventually, so we knew that it was going to come."

The afternoon nearly featured a pair of local champions as the Nickel City Sons and Eastern Ontario Wild were deadlocked at 2-2 in the Peewee final, with just minutes remaining in the third, before the visitors pulled away.

Chazka Bush scored on the power-play to break the tie, adding an empty-net marker for the hat-trick, joined in finding the open net by Kyle Bouzane as the Wild downed the Sons 5-2.

Justin Dauphinais and Gavin Brown accounted for the scoring for Nickel City. Closing things off, the Toronto Young Nationals scored four times in the second period, blanking the Don Mills Flyers 4-0 in an all-GTA midget final.

Ryan Bonsteel scored twice to show the way for the Young Nats, with Nolan Regan and Alex Ierullo adding one tally apiece, while Justin Herman chipped in with three helpers along the way.