The Fred Page Cup was successful and entertaining yet again this year.
With the tournament being held in Ottawa this year and hosted by the Ottawa Jr. Senators, iPlayHockey had the chance to attend and was blown away by the level of competition.
Every single game was close and a battle for the full 60 minutes with the exception of the finals, where the host Ottawa Jr. Senators put on a SHOW in front of their home crowd, taking down Le Collège Français de Longueuil 10-1. An absolute shocker!
iPlayHockey is thrilled to have been part of this amazing event and wishes to thank the volunteers and organizers for all of their hard work.
Original story below was posted on the Ottawa Sun.
Well no one saw that coming.
After a very tight round-robin portion of the Fred Page Cup that included a 3-2 shootout win by the Ottawa Jr. Senators over College Francais on Friday, everyone and their dog was expecting another close game when those two teams met again Sunday in the championship game.
Everyone and their dog were wrong.
The Jr. Sens had scored just two five-on-five goals in their first three games, but on Sunday they scored two in the first period and routed Longueuil 10-1. No rubbing of the eyes in disbelief, that was the score.
“I thought we were the better team from start to finish,” Jr. Sens coach Martin Dagenais said.
“Seven of our top eight goal scorers during the regular season didn’t have a goal in this tournament before this game. Today the leaders really stepped up.”
Six players scored their first of the series for Ottawa on Sunday, including Gabriel Morin who had his first three, two of which gave the Jr. Sens a 2-0 lead after the first period.
Nick Lalonde scored his first to make it a 3-0 game before William Lemay got Longueuil on the board seven minutes into the second, and just seconds after they were unsuccessful on an extended five-on-three power play.
They continued the pressure and started to take over the game after that goal, but three goals in just over three minutes toward the end of the period by Ottawa took away any doubt as to the outcome.
Owen Guy, Darcy Walsh and Pierre-Luc Veillette had those goals for a 6-1 Ottawa lead after two periods. Veillette, Morin, Isaac Anderson and Ethan Manderville closed out the scoring in the third period.
The Jr. Sens will now represent Eastern Canada at the RBC Cup starting on Saturday in Chilliwack as they try to become Junior A national champions.
One thing that can’t be overlooked in the win was the fact the Jr. Sens had the day off on Saturday because of their win over Longueuil on Friday night. Longueuil had to play a semifinal game Saturday and ended up playing five games in five days.
The Jr. Sens trailed 2-0 in the third period Friday before winning 3-2 in a shootout out during which Connor Hicks stopped the final eight Longueuil shooters. He allowed only six goals the entire tournament.
“Mentally for our guys to have Hicks in the net is huge. We have two very good goalies but to bring in a guy with three years OHL experience, it’s huge for our team,” Dagenais said.
Hicks faced just 89 shots in the four games, with 31 of those coming Thursday night in a 3-2 win over the Carleton Place Canadians.
“Our team played great all week. We’ve been looking forward to this all year and once the time came we were ready to go,” Hicks said.
“Having the break (Saturday) was huge and it showed why it’s so valuable. (Longueuil) is a great team and we didn’t expect this coming in, but we worked hard and were rewarded for it.”
Jr. Sens forward Finn Evans had four assists in the final on Sunday and was named tournament MVP. He said the big goal differential, while unexpected, was certainly welcomed.
“Obviously, a little less pressure, but no matter how we won it’s just an unreal group of guys and we always believed in ourselves,” he said, deflecting credit for the MVP toward his team.
“It’s awesome, but it’s a team game and I wouldn’t be getting that award if we didn’t win the championship. It was a team game, every guy put in their all. We knew we would win if we played our game and I’m really proud of the guys in that room.”
Dagenais said he hadn’t put any thought into heading to Chilliwack because he didn’t want to get ahead of himself.
“I guess I’m going to get a call from Hockey Canada (on Monday) and we’ll go from there, but we’re very happy to be going,” he said.
The Jr. Senators will open the RBC Cup when they face the Central Representative Welling Dukes on Saturday at 11 a.m. ET.