Pioneer Seeds defeat The Howes Stars to claim 5th annual Pond Rocket Cup
By Jason Jackson
VANKLEEK HILL– They came. They saw. They played some really good hockey. Oh... and they had one heck of a party.
That pretty much sums up the weekend for the fifth annual Pond Rocket Cup hockey tournament that was held here in Vankleek Hill. Sixteen hockey teams and a lot of fans made the trek to Vankleek Hill to experience what has officially become the area’s biggest social events of the winter.
For some, it was their first trip to our small town, for others it was an excuse to get away from the rigors of university life and let loose, and for others it was just an excuse to come home.
The tournament was made up of four pools of four teams.
The games consisted of two 15-minute halves and there no stoppages in play as players were required to “tag up” at certain locations on the ice instead of having faceoffs. It is quite simply go-go-go for 3o minutes.
The top team from each pool advanced to the semi finals, while the second placed teams went on to the consolation round.
The first semi-final saw Pioneer Seeds facing off against the Purple Cobras.
This was easily the most exciting game of the tournament with many spectators predicting that this game would in fact determine the championship.
The Purple Cobras jumped out to a quick two goal lead scoring on their first trip down the ice. Not one to be easily shaken, Pioneer goalie Trevor Cunning shut the door and let his offense take over as they battled back to win the game 5-2.
The other semi-final saw The Howes Stars facing Glengarry’s The Dirty Little Piggies. This turned out to be a goaltending battle from start to finish as neither team looked like they would surrender the first goal.
The Howes Stars ended up winning in a shootout 1-0.
The Consolation Final saw the K-Town Krush, made up of mostly RMC hockey players, defeat Harden Rock, who were fittingly made up of many Ottawa U players, 6-3.
In the Championship game it was the star studded heavily favoured Pioneer Seeds going up against the Cinderella story Howes Stars (see story Cinderella thy name is Kenny).
Pioneer dominated much of the game, controlling the puck and the tempo. There looked to be little left in the tank for the Howes Stars as they struggled to keep up. The team did catch its second wind with about 5 minutes to go in the second half as they scored two quick goals making the score 5-3. Pioneer scored an empty netter to finish up with a 6-3 victory and their names on the Cup.
In last week’s edition of The Review, we published an entire page dedicated to the tournament, part of which was a pre-tournament rankings of all the teams. This proved to cause quite the commotion as many teams either felt slighted by their low rankings or felt the pressure of living up to the expectations of a high pre-tournament ranking.
One such team was the #1 ranked Starcroft farms, who despite putting on a good show failed to make it out of their pool. The #6 ranked Ottawa Hosers, who came into the tournament with high expectations crumbled under the pressure and went 0-3.
Luckily both Starcroft Farms and the Hosers had stellar performances at the bar making up for their shortcoming on the ice.
“Money-wise, the Pond Rocket weekend is by far the biggest event of the year” stated Vankleek Hill Recreation director Janis Renwick, whose biggest concern was how to make sure the bar doesn’t run out of beverages. 100% of the revenue from the bar goes back into helping to fund the operation of the community center.
The town wasn’t the only big winner for the weekend. The proceeds from the tournament's gate went towards the new Mill Street Splash park, which is due to open this summer, next to the arena.
Between the gate and the 50/50 tickets that were sold, $1800 was raised for the splash park.
Several local businesses also benefited from the influx of people that the tournament generates.
With next year’s tournament only 365 days away, many teams are already making plans and adjusting their rosters accordingly.
See a photo gallery of this event »
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