Flin Flon and the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN) Selects will host a regional junior B championship tournament next spring.
The Selects announced that they would be the hosts of the 2024 Central Canada Cup, an annual competition pitting the top finishers of different junior B leagues in Manitoba, Ontario and potentially other provinces. This year, the event was supposed to be hosted by a team in the Keystone Junior Hockey League (KJHL), the northern Manitoba-based loop the Selects play in.
The tournament is currently planned to be held at the Whitney Forum from April 19-23.
“I am extremely thrilled to have been awarded a prestige championship like the Central Canada Cup and look forward to the challenges of winning at home at the Whitney Forum in April,” said Selects coach and general manager Gatlin Church in the team's announcement.
There is currently no recognized national or western Canadian title in junior B hockey. The Keystone Cup was awarded from 1983-2017 to the western Canadian junior B champion, but teams began pulling out from the event in 2018, mainly citing cost concerns, while no champions were crowned from 2020-2021 due to COVID-19.
Five teams will take part in the tournament, according to the announcement - the champions of four leagues and the Selects, either as hosts or as league champions if the team claims the title. Entrants listed include the Prairie Junior Hockey League (PJHL) in Saskatchewan, the Lakehead Junior Hockey League (LJHL) in northern Ontario, the North Eastern Alberta Junior B Hockey League (NEAJBHL) in Alberta and the KJHL.
Whether or not those leagues will actually take part is still unknown - PJHL president Scott Blevins said in an email to The Reminder that the league has not yet confirmed whether or not their champion will take part. The Reminder has reached out to other leagues named in the announcement, but has not received comment.
Last year's Central Canada Cup was a four-team tournament including teams from the LJHL and the KJHL - both teams that qualified for those leagues' finals were entered. The title was won by the KJHL's OCN Storm, who faced the KJHL champion Peguis Juniors and LJHL entrants Schreiber Falcons and the host Thunder Bay Northern Hawks.
"This program has come so far in less than two years. Allowing this program to build bridges within our communities and gain momentum like this has been an honour for our Indigenous community," said PBCN councillor Marvin Morin, who represents Denare Beach on the band council.
Recent games
In the past week, the squad has gone on a run, picking up four wins in one week and climbing up the Keystone Junior Hockey League (KJHL) standings.
The run started with an away game in Waywayseecappo against the expansion Wild Nov. 13, which led to the Selects winning 3-1. Ray Pudlat Jr. and Cranberry Portage’s Harlan Jacobson opened the game with a pair of first-period goals and Ukrainian import Pavlo Kobikov, coming to the Selects after a stint in northern Ontario junior A, added a third-period goal as insurance. Paxton Moore made 35 saves on 36 shots to seal the win.
Three days later, the Selects were on the road again and picking up a big win against another northern foe, this time winning 9-3 over the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN) Flames, who are ranked first in the league.
The Selects got offence early on from Owen Angootealuk and Dominic Suhr, also coming off a stint of Ontario junior A hockey, then Suhr added three more goals by himself in the third period to clinch the win. Jacobson, Pelican Narrows’ Embry Roberts, Israel Maktar and Angootealuk all added goals of their own. Moore got the win with 29 saves.
PBCN would then head back to Waywayseecappo for a pair of games over the weekend, winning 5-1 and 9-0 over the Wild Nov. 18 and 19.
Suhr got the Selects the lead in the first game and Jacobson pushed the team over the top with a pair of second-period goals. Terence Pilakapsi scored two goals of his own to help clinch the win, while newly-acquired goalie Ethan Fechter got a 29-save win. The Selects fired a whopping 72 shots on the Wild net in just one game.
The Selects ended the week with an even bigger win over the Wild, paced mainly by a hat trick from Jacobson, two goals each from Angootealuk and Jacey Melnyk and a 26-save shutout by Fechter. Despite rolling a 14-skater lineup out, the Selects still pelted Wayway goalie Ashton Barnesky with another 75 shots.
That strong week pushed the Selects into fourth place in the seven-team KJHL with 20 points, just two back from the first-place NCN Flames and three points ahead of the reigning champion Peguis Juniors. The Selects also won all four games without their leading scorer, forward Mathis Bacon-Labbe, and without their early-season starter Odin Church.
The Selects' next home game will be against the OCN Storm Dec. 13 at the Whitney Forum.
