SYDNEY, N.S. — The Cape Breton High School Hockey League will begin its 2018-19 regular season on Tuesday.

This year’s league will feature four-teams including the defending league champion Riverview Redmen, Glace Bay Panthers, Memorial Marauders and the Sydney Academy Wildcats.
 

Each team will play an 18-game schedule — nine games on home ice and nine games on the road. The teams will face each other six times — three games at respective home arenas.

The Riverview Redmen were one goal away from winning the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation provincial title last season, losing to the Charles P. Allen Cheetahs of Bedford.

Riverview will return eight players including forwards Blake Cox and Brady MacLean as well as goaltender Michael MacMullen.

“We have a good core coming back, but we did lose a lot of good kids, and also gained some,” said Redmen head coach Jimmy Smith.

“We have good goaltending, we have some real good defense and we have some good guys up front that are coming back bigger and stronger.”

Riverview will open league play Tuesday when they host the Memorial Marauders at 8 p.m. at the Cape Breton County Recreation Centre in Coxheath.

This year’s edition of the Glace Bay Panthers will be fairly young, with the team losing 11 players from last year’s lineup.

“It’s a big turnaround year for us, but we have some good young talent that came up, so we should be strong,” said Panthers head coach Dwayne Doucette.

“We’re well-balanced, our defense is pretty strong, we have six strong defencemen and we have three strong lines — as far as balance goes, we will be stronger than last season.”

Among the six returning players, two of those will be between the pipes.

“It’s huge to have returning goaltenders,” said Doucette. “It starts in goal and it goes from there — we’re pleased.”

Like Glace Bay, the Memorial Marauders will also have a young team this year, icing five Grade 12s and six Grade 10s in its lineup.

“For us to be successful, the players really have to support each other and do it by committee — work ethic will be a big thing,” said Marauders head coach Terry Duff.

“Hopefully no teams will outwork us, and I don’t believe that they will.”

Memorial will have two experienced goaltenders between the pipes. The team will return Grade 12 player Spencer Shebib and has also added Jonathan Dolomont, who spent last season with the Cape Breton Jets of the minor midget ‘AAA’ hockey league.

“It’s a balanced lineup, but I expect our goaltenders to be strong,” said Duff.

The Sydney Academy Wildcats will return to the league this season, one year after failing to ice a team because of low player numbers.

“We hope that we’re going to be competitive,” said Sydney Academy principal Kevin Deveaux, noting 26-28 players tried out for the team this season.

“We love to win provincial titles, but that’s secondary to providing the opportunities.”

The Cape Breton Post requested an interview with Wildcats head coach Sheldon Surette, however the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education denied the request, directing all questions about the Sydney team to Deveaux.

Sydney Academy will host Riverview on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Membertou Sport and Wellness Centre, while Memorial will play Glace Bay in its home opener on Thursday at 7:20 p.m. at the Emera Centre Northside in North Sydney.

The Panthers, who will host the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation Division 2 provincials in March, will have its home opener on Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Canada Gamex Complex in Sydney.

Cape Breton High School Hockey League:

• The league will feature four teams: Glace Bay Panthers, Memorial Marauders, Riverview Redmen and Sydney Academy Wildcats
• Each team will play 18 games during the regular season – nine games home and nine games on the road
• The teams will each play each other six times – three at home and three on the road
• The league will begin its schedule on Tuesday with Riverview hosting Memorial
• The Glace Bay Panthers will host the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation provincials, March 8-10, 2019, at the Canada Games Complex

jeremy.fraser@cbpost.com

High school hockey is back at Sydney Academy.

The once-powerful program -- dating back almost a century -- was sidelined a year ago because there were not enough players.

But a new generation of Wildcats is ready to rejuvenate the hockey program that has been part of the school’s fabric for generations.

“I've got records in our library back to the 1920s of a game played at that time, so it's a very, very long history of playing hockey in the school,” said principal Kevin Desveaux.

That tradition came to an abrupt end last year when not enough students wanted to play.

“This was my last hope of playing hockey, because I'm too old for midget now,” said Peter Googoo.

Although Googoo lost his chance at lacing them up one final time, his brother, Donnie, will now get the opportunity after the school announced the program is back.
 

“I feel privileged,” said Donnie Googoo.“My brother made it, my dad coached (Sydney Academy) for a few years, so I feel like I'm taking the mantle and hopefully have a good season.”

The Sydney Academy Wildcats will play their rival, the Riverview Redmen, in their first home opener in two years in Membertou on Wednesday.

“Everyone is hyped up for the home opener,” Donnie Googoo said. “Everyone is talking about being there, showing up and wearing blue and white to cheer on Sydney Academy.”

School principal Kevin Desveaux has been cheering from his office since he learned the program would be back.

He says not only does it gives students a chance to play organized sports, but also adds to the whole high school experience.

“Every sport is important. Every activity is important,” Desveaux said. “It gives students another reason for being here. It makes the school more fun and makes the atmosphere much more positive.”

Desveaux admits there's still a challenge when it comes to icing a team in the future because of enrollment numbers, but for now everyone here is just happy the Wildcats are back.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.

SYDNEY, N.S. — The Cape Breton High School Hockey League Awards were handed out this year at the school athletic awards nights. Below is a list of the awards presented from the league.

Winners of the Sydney Metros Association Annual High School Scholarships were Christian Jackson of Glace Bay High School, Michael Bailey of Memorial Composite High School and Jake MacDonald of Riverview High School. Each received a $2,500 scholarship applied to their post-secondary school for the next year. This scholarship is provided by the Sydney Metros Association as an incentive for students to play high school hockey and to continue playing hockey at a high level after high school.

Other players recognized include:

Scoring Leader – Dustin Sudds (RHS)

League MVP – Cameron Yates (GBHS)

Playoff MVP – Logan Beaton (RHS)

Top Goalie – Owen MacPhee (RHS)

Top Defenceman – Dylan MacDonald (RHS)

Rookie of the Year – Dovi Walker (MCHS)

Derek Lewis Memorial Award – Austen MacLellan (MCHS)

Johnny Carabin Memorial Award – Josh MacKay (RHS)

Edison Boutilier Memorial Award – Drew Baxter (GBHS)

Cape Breton Metros Hockey Association also announced their first and second all-star teams:

First all-star team:

F - Dustin Sudds (RHS)

F - Cameron Yates (GBHS)

F - Christian Jackson (GBHS)

D - Dylan MacDonald (RHS)

D - Logan Burke (GBHS)

G - Michael MacMullen (RHS)

Second all-star team

F - Evan Hiscock (MCHS)

F - Trenton Gove (GBHS)

F - Blake Cox (RHS)

D - Drew Baxter (GBHS)

D - Michael Bailey (MCHS)

G - Spencer Shebib (MCHS).

SYDNEY, N.S. — The Riverview Redmen and Glace Bay Panthers battled it out in regular-season play, the championship game in two different tournaments and squared off in the Highland Region championship series.

This weekend, they’ll meet at least one more time at the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation Division 1 boys hockey championship at the BMO Centre in Bedford. The teams open play against each other on Friday at 11:45 a.m.

“We had a really great series with Glace Bay and it was good hockey,” Redmen head coach Jim Smith said of their playoffs with the Panthers. “Every game was tight … It was good, solid, hard hockey each way.”

The Redmen bested the Panthers in six games in a tightly contested best-of-seven Highland Region championship series. Riverview defeated Glace Bay in the final of the Mae Kibyuk Memorial Green and Gold Tournament back in November, but the Panthers returned the favour in the final of the Panther Classic in December. Now, the rivals will see competition from the best in the province.

Riverview and Glace Bay will compete in Pool ‘A’ at the NSSAF championship along with the Halifax West Warriors — who defeated the Redmen in the final of the Red Cup Showcase in February — and the Citadel Phoenix of Halifax. Pool ‘B’ features the Cobequid Education Centre Cougars of Truro, Horton Griffins of Wolfville, Millwood Knights of Middle Sackville and the C.P. Allen Cheetahs of Bedford.

Smith said his Redmen squad has had some great chemistry, with a mix of veteran and rookie players. Dustin Sudds finished as the league scoring champion with 31 points (26 goals, five assists) in 16 games. Jake MacDonald, captain Josh MacKay and Andrew McCarron also scored at an over a point-per-game pace, while veteran goaltender Owen MacPhee and rookie standout Michael MacMullen have been a one-two punch between the pipes all season.

“We have a great group that gets along well on and off the ice,” said Smith. “We had some kids who have come along in the second half and everybody started chipping in.”

The Panthers took the long road to provincials but earned a spot with a 5-0 win over the North Nova Gryphons of New Glasgow in a qualifier game on Monday at the Canada Games Complex.

Panthers head coach Dwayne Doucet said it’s been the team’s defensive play that’s carried them this season. The club is backstopped in goal by the tandem of Cody Smith and Nick Bigley, while three players — Cameron Yates, Trenton Gove and Christian Jackson — finished as three of the top four scorers in the league.

“We’ve played a couple of those teams. We played Halifax West at the Red Cup and lost 1-0 in overtime, so that game could have went either way. We play them on Friday in our second game,” said Doucet. “Citadel, we played them twice and both games were really close.

“I think it’s going to be what team wants it more and what team is hungrier.”

The top two teams in each pool following round-robin play advance to the semifinals Saturday at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. The semifinal winners will meet in the final on Sunday at 1 p.m.

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NSSAF Division 1 Boys Hockey Championship

BMO Centre, Bedford

Pool ‘A’ – Halifax West, Riverview, Citadel, Glace Bay

Pool ‘B’ – C.E.C., Horton, Millwood, C.P. Allen

Cape Breton teams schedule

Friday

11:45 a.m. – Riverview vs. Glace Bay

5:30 p.m. – Riverview vs. Citadel

8:15 p.m. – Halifax West vs. Glace Bay

Saturday

10 a.m. – Riverview vs. Halifax West

10:15 a.m. – Citadel vs. Glace Bay

6 p.m. – Semifinal (1st Pool ‘A’ vs. 2nd Pool ‘B’)

8 p.m. – Semifinal (1st Pool ‘B’ vs. 2nd Pool ‘A’)

Sunday

1 p.m. – Championship

COXHEATH, N.S. — Logan Beaton scored the game-winning goal with 1:27 to go in the third to give the Riverview Redmen a 3-2 win over the Glace Bay Panthers in Cape Breton High School Hockey League playoff action Tuesday at the County Recreation Centre.

The win in front of about 400 fans gives the Redmen a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven league championship series. Game 6 goes tonight at the Canada Games Complex, a 7:15 p.m. start.

Andrew McCarron and Blake Cox with goals in the first period also struck for the Redmen.

For the Panthers, Dylan McDonald opened the scoring in the first period. Christian Jackson tied things up in the middle frame.

Between the pipes, Owen MacPhee stopped 16 shots to pick up the win, while Cody Smith turned aside 26 pucks in the loss.

If necessary, Game 7 will be played Friday at the County rink at 7 p.m.