This past weekend 10 North Bay & District Junior Lakers Hockey teams travelled across the province to Sudbury, East Ottawa, Brampton, and Whitby to take part in four different tournaments.
In Brampton the U18AA Junior Lakers skated to a 2-1-0 record in round robin play, earning them a spot in the round of 16 where they faced off against the Northern Subway Selects from Nova Scotia. In the round of 16 the Subway Selects edged the Junior Lakers 3-2.
In East Ottawa the U13 White House League Junior Lakers earned a 1-1-1 record leaving them out of the elimination round. The Junior Lakers earned a 1-1 tie vs the Cornwall Typhoons and defeated the Gatineau Tornades 2-1.
In Sudbury, the U18 Blue House League Junior Lakers earned their first win of the season vs the Huntsville Sting in an exciting 5-3 win! Ellie Beauparlant scored 2 goals for the Junior Lakers with Janick Arbour, Kaylee Penasse, and Hayden Beaudette each picking up a goal and Dakota Cherry earning an assist.
The U9 Sky Blue House League Junior Lakers also participated in the Sudbury Snowflake tournament. The U9 Sky Blue team showed determination and spirit bringing a medal back to North Bay for participating in the U9 Festival!
6 Junior Lakers teams headed south to take part in the Whitby Tournament of Heroes, the U11B, U11A, U13B, U13A, U15A, and U18A teams all had great showings in the GTA. 3 Junior Lakers teams advanced to the Semi-Finals with 2 teams bringing Gold Medals back to North Bay.
The U11B Junior Lakers earned a 1-1 tie vs the Oshawa Lady Generals to open the tournament before dropping game two, 2-0 to the Owen Sound Ice Hawks. On Saturday the U11B Junior Lakers would once again earn a 1-1 to open the day, this time vs the North Durham Blades before falling 2-0 to the Durham West Lightning.
The U11A Junior Lakers had a strong showing in Whitby with a 2-2-0 record after round robin play. The U11A team would earn a 2-1 win vs North Durham and a 4-1 win vs Peterborough just missing out on the medal round.
The U13A Junior Lakers went undefeated through the round robin with a 3-0-1 record to earn a first place finish in pool play. In the round robin they tied West Northumberland 1-1, then defeated East Ottawa 3-0, Clarington 2-0, and Oakville 1-0. In the early morning semi-final on Sunday the North Bay team would face Northern Ontario rivals the Sudbury Lady Wolves. Unfortunately, the Junior Lakers fell 3-0 in the semi-final game to the Lady Wolves.
For the second straight season the U13B Jr.Lakers are bringing home a medal from Whitby, after a silver medal finish in 2023, the Junior Lakers went back to Whitby looking for gold. The U13B team started the tournament with 3 wins and a tie in round robin play. With a 2-0 win over Lindsay, 2-0 win vs the host Whitby Wolves, a 3-3 tie vs West Northumberland and a 5-1 win vs Oshawa. Sunday morning the Junior Lakers took on the Oshawa Lady Generals in a rematch during semi final play. The Junior Lakers would go on to win 2-1 to advance to the finals! In the Championship game the Junior Lakers skated to a 2-1 win vs the Nepean Wildcats!
The U15A Junior Lakers began the tournament with a 5-5 tie vs the host Whitby Wolves, then went on to defeat Scarborough 7-0 on Friday evening. On Saturday the Junior Lakers skated to a 1-0 win over Napanee before downing the West Northumberland Wild 6-0. After an undefeated round robin the U15A Junior Lakers finished 3rd overall finding them in the semi-finals vs the undefeated Haldimand Rivercats. The Junior Lakers would defeat the Rivercats 3-1 to advance to the Championship game. The Championship Game would be a battle of Northern Ontario as the Junior Lakers faced off with the Sudbury Lady Wolves. North Bay would go on to win the finals 4-1. The U15A Junior Lakers have brought home 4 straight tournament titles winning Gold in Markham, Waterloo, North Bay, and now Whitby to round out their 2024 tournament weekends.
The U18A Junior Lakers battled hard all weekend, to open the tournament the U18A team faced a strong Flamborough team where they dropped the game 5-1, later on Friday evening they dropped a close game 4-3 to the Oshawa Lady Generals. On Saturday they faced the Cambridge Roadrunners where they fell 3-1 before earning a 2-2 tie vs the host Whitby Wolves.
