Valley Lion’s Pee Wee’s Capture Walden Friendship Hockey Tournament

In what will certainly be the most exciting game of hockey many of the players will ever experience, the Valley East Lions PeeWee Hockey club came away with the gold medal in the Walden Friendship Hockey Tournament played recently in Walden.

The Lions went undefeated in the preliminary round edging out Copper Cliff Eagles 2 to 1; shutting out Coniston 1 to 0; and then bombing Soo Verdi Lodge, 8 to 0. The Lions edged out Bruce Mines in a tough semi-final, setting the stage for the wild final contest.

After three periods of play, the score ended up 1 to 1 against the home town Walden Blues. As per the rules, both teams iced four player and began the first overtime period. No scoring took place. So they dropped to three-on-three for the second overtime period. Still no scoring. Down to two-on-two for the third overtime period and the game still remained tied. Then, it happened. While many hockey purists insist it is the most ridiculous way to end a hockey game, there are many others who say nothing beats it for excitement - the shoot-out!

By the end of the shoot-out, the Valley East Lions finally came out on top by outscoring Walden 3 to 2 to capture the gold and bring the most exciting game of the year to an end.

Members of the winning team include: Philip Guimond, Shane Beaulne, Chris Daoust, Trevor Jessop, Matthew Mott, Thomas Restoule, Josh Kaven, Zack Kaatari, Jeff Groulx, Devin St. Jean, Louis Doiron, Jeff Theriault and goaltender, Jonathon Goulard. For Goulard, who allowed only 4 goals in five games prior to the shootout, it was a remarkable weekend. The coaching staff included Denis Guimond, Mike Beaulne, Mike Daoust and Terry Mott. The Lions Pee Wees would like to express appreciation to Mike Beaulne, owner of Subway in Lively for sponsoring the team in the tournament.  

Team Giroux-Simon Reaches The Top At Family Tournament

When Team Giroux-Simon dominated the ‘B’ Championship game in 2001 by a 6 to 1 score over Team Pelletier-Boyd, they set their goals on the ‘A’ Championship in 2002. The talented squad realized their objective with a hard-fought, exciting 3 to 2 victory over Team Venedam in this year’s championship. The win was bitter-sweet for Team Giroux-Simon who lost in the preliminary round to Venedam by an 8 to1 margin. To get to the finals, Team Giroux-Simon downed Team Verdiel 2 to 1 while Team Venedam edged out Team Resmer-Jones 5 to 4.

Members of the winning team, shown on the ice with their trophy, included: Derek, Eric, Hubert, Marc, and Denis Giroux; Rick, Claude and Shawn Lemieux; Scott Wood, Bobby Decosse, Richard Simon, Bob Rivet, Roland Chretien, and Dan Prevost. The coach was Roland Giroux, assisted by Don and Gaetan Lamontagne.

The ‘B’ Division saw Team Vis-Lemieux go undefeated in all five games, eventually downing Team Chenien by a 4 to 1 margin in the finals. Members of Team Vis-Lemieux included: Jim, John, Chad, Jerry, Andy Vis; Gil and Brian Labelle; Dan Baruzuol, Gavin Bray, Derek Chartier, Kevin Fredette and Yves Laframboise. The team was coached by Jack Vis, assisted by Andre Lemieux and John Vis Sr.

In the popular ‘C’ Division, Team Sonier-Kingsley had their way with most opponents, winning handily in the finals against Team Boudreau by a score of 8 to 3. The only team that gave the champs any trouble was the pesky Team Laforest-Green club. Team Sonier-Kingsley had to work hard to edge out Laforest-Green by the score of 4 to 2. The members of the winning team included: Jacques, Jason, Denis Jr., Denis Sr. Sonier; Joshua, Al, Rick Jutras; Lee, Kyle, Eugene and Laverne Hope; Mike, Don and Joey Armstrong; Joel Dupuis, and Mike Kavanagh. The club was coached by Jacques Sonier.

Congratulations go out to Tournament Chairperson, Hilda Kingsley on a job well done. Hilda was assisted by Co-chairs Andre Thibert and Germain Belanger.

Dear Mr. Kirwan:

I thought you might be interested in a plaque that appears at the entrance of a park in Aberdeen, Scotland (perhaps Hazelhead Park), and the words might be used at some of our public venues, reminding people to clean up after them. I do not know the author.

A Request

Friend, when you stray or sit and take your rest.
On moor or fell or under spreading trees.
Pray leave no traces of your wayside meal.
No paper bag or scattered orange peel.
No daily journal littered on the grass.
Others may view these with distaste and pass.
Let no one say and say it to your shame,
That all was beauty here, until you came.