Valour teams crowned champs at annual Valour Voyageurs Single “A” High School Hockey Tournament

By Gary Serviss | January 18, 2018
Valour Voyageurs – Girls A Champions: (back left to right) Coaches Emily Dalmer, Becky Conroy and Gary Serviss, (centre left to right) Bobbi Lavoie, Remi Lavoie, Gabrielle Neville, Mila Jones, Keely Patrick, (back left to right) Sophie Warren, Maggie Mohns, Katie Douglas, Hali deRuiter and Murran McCafferty. (Submitted photo)

On Dec. 20 at the Silver Dart Arena and Petawawa Civic Centre, Valour JK-12 School hosted 14 high school hockey teams in the 13th Annual Valour Voyageurs Single “A” High School Hockey Tournament. Six boys teams competed in a round robin tournament at the Civic Centre. The excitement began with a match between Valour and Jeanne Lajoie. In a high intensity match, Jeanne Lajoie squeaked by Valour 3-1. Matt Unrau had Valour’s lone marker.

St. Joseph’s CHS from Renfrew then easily handled Renfrew Collegiate Institute 5-0.

Next up was Valour with a huge 4-1 victory over Franco Cite from Sturgeon Falls. Scoring for Valour was Cam Fowler with a pair, Brett Hermiston and Andrew Dawe.

Seaway High School from Iroquois was then beat by St. Joseph’s of Renfrew 7-3 followed by Jeanne Lajoie losing to Franco Cite by a score of 5-3.

In the final round robin game RCI topped Seaway 9-1.

In the Consolation Final, Franco Cite shutout Seaway capturing the consolation title with a 4-0 victory.

In the B-Championship game RCI met Jeanne Lajoie, with RCI narrowly edging them 1-0, thus winning the B Championship title.

Valour and Jeanne Lajoie and Franco Cite were all tied after the round robin, but using the tie-breaking procedure, Valour secured its place in the A Championship final.

The A Championship was won by Valour over St. Joseph’s ending St. Joseph’s four-year win streak. Valour potted two goals in the second, one by Cam Fowler and the other by Brett Hermiston.

Valour Voyageurs – Boys A Champions: (back left to right) Colby Gillard, Cambden Moore, Mac Douglas, Cole Fowler, Josh Reid, Liam Serviss, Matt Unrau, Aidan Neville, Brett Hermiston, Ben Lee, Tommy Campbell, Hunter Baillie and Ethan Bullivant, (front left to right) Colton Moore, Andrew Dawe and Hayden Weisenberg. (Submitted photo.)

With two minutes to go in the third, Valour seemed to be cruising to the victory, but then St. Joseph’s scored, pulled the goalie and then tied the game with a minute to go. That meant a sudden-death shootout was needed to decide the champion.

The first two shooters were stopped, then Liam Serviss scored for Valour, but so did the St. Joseph’s player. Josh Reid then used a deceptive deke to fool the St. Joseph’s goalie securing the A Championship title for the Valour Boys for the first time since 2005.

In girl’s action at the Silver Dart Arena, eight teams met for an eight-team bracket tournament. Valour began the day with a thrilling 4-2 win over Jeanne Lajoie. Murran McCafferty opened the scoring and Valour never looked back with two goals by Hali deRuiter and a single by Sophie Warren.

Opeongo worked hard to secure a 3-1 over Bishop Smith and Pontiac High School from Shawville needed a shootout to narrowly edge Seaway District High School from Iroquois 2-1.

In the final first round match, ESC Algonquin from North Bay was defeated 1-0 by South Carleton High School out of Russell, Ontario.

In the B-side quarter-finals, Bishop Smith defeated Jeanne Lajoie 4-2 and Seaway surprised ESC Algonquin 2-0. This set up a B-Championship game between Bishop Smith and Seaway which was won easily by Bishop Smith with a 3-0 shutout.

In the B Consolation Finals ESC Algonquin squeaked by Jeanne Lajoie 4-3, in yet another shootout victory.

In the A-side quarter-finals, Valour met Opeongo in a fiercely contested match. Valour opened an early 1-0 lead with a goal by Hali deRuiter but Opeongo was persistent and kept constant pressure on Valour. Sophie Warren scored midway through the third and Katie Douglas turned aside all Opeongo shooters for the shutout to give Valour the win and a berth in the A-final.

In the other semi-final, South Carleton defeated Pontiac 2-0.

In the A-Consolation game Opeongo met Pontiac and suffered a heart-wrenching 2-1 loss in a shootout, making Pontiac from Shawville, Quebec the “A” Consolation Champs.

In the “A” Championship final, Valour faced off against South Carleton High School, the two teams played a scoreless first period. South Carleton opened the scoring early in the second but that only strengthened Valour’s resolve. They gritted their teeth and tied the game a minute later.

With only five minutes remaining in the contest, Valour went on the power play. After some dandy cross-ice passing Hali deRuiter roofed the go-ahead goal. Sophie Warren iced the victory with an empty nettter.

The Valour Voyageurs are the 2017 Valour Voyageur Girls “A” Hockey Tournament Champions. It is the second championship in a row for Valour cementing their status in school history as a mini-dynasty.

Valour would like to thank the staffs of both the Civic Centre and Silver Dart for their hard work and all the student volunteers who helped organize a well-run tournament.