By Sam Laskaris /
The Cornwall Colts accomplished what they set out to do.
But in the end the Colts were still forced to watch as a pair of other squads battled it out for national bragging rights on their home ice.
The Colts, members of the Central Junior A Hockey League, played host to the Canadian tournament, the Royal Bank Cup, which concluded on May 11.
Saskatchewan’s Humboldt Broncos scored a first-period goal and held on for a 1-0 victory over Alberta’s Camrose Kodiaks in the championship final.
The Colts had their tournament come to an end when they were downed 6-1 by the Broncos in their semi-final match.
Yet Cornwall coach/GM Ian MacInnis declared his club’s participation in the five-team national tournament a success.
“Our goal was getting into the semi-finals,” he said. “And all in all I’m quite happy with the way the boys played.”
As hosts, the Colts were guaranteed a spot in the nine-day tournament. But the Cornwall squad certainly did not enter the event on ?a roll.
That’s because the Colts, who had posted a 31-21-1-4 regular season mark, were defeated in their opening round of the playoffs in mid-March. The Smiths Falls Bears downed Cornwall 4-1 in their best-of-seven CJHL quarter-final series, which ended on Mar. 18.
That meant the Colts had a 46-day layoff before competing in their first round-robin match at the nationals.
This lengthy wait between games no doubt in part accounted for Cornwall’s 7-0 loss against Humboldt in its tournament opener.
“In our first game we were a little off,” MacInnis said. “But I thought we got better each period as we went along.”
It didn’t take the Colts long to rebound from their lopsided opening loss. The next day Cornwall edged the other Ontario entry, the Oakville Blades, 5-4.
The Blades, members of the 35-team Provincial Junior A Hockey League, had arguably the toughest road to the nationals. After receiving an opening-round post-season bye, Oakville had to win four playoff rounds to capture its league crown.
The Blades still needed to win a four-team qualifying tournament, the Dudley Hewitt Cup, after that in order to advance to the Canadian championships.
Cornwall then picked up its second win of the event, easily beating Nova Scotia’s Weeks Crushers 6-1.
But the Colts finished off their round-robin play with a 2-1 loss against Camrose.
“Those two western teams were really quite strong,” MacInnis said of the Kodiaks ?and Broncos.
Even though his side came up a bit short, MacInnis believes his organization ran a successful tournament.
“I thought it was a great week,” he said. “The teams were all quite pleased with the hospitality. It will be a very memorable event for them.” |