By Lakeshore News Reporter Staff
The Lakeshore Canadiens are your 2021-2022 Schmalz Cup champions.
Team captain and Lakeshore native Dylan Weston scored the overtime winner as the Canadiens defeated the Clarington Eagles 3-2 in overtime in the championship game of the Provincial Junior Hockey League’s Schmaltz Cup tournament at the University of Guelph on Sunday.
With the win, the Canadiens became the first team to be awarded the Schmalz Cup by the PJHL since 2019 due to league shutdowns caused the past couple of seasons. The league decided heading into 2021-2022 that it wanted to play a full regular season schedule but in doing so it also had to shorten the playoff format in the spring of 2022.
As a result, after playoff champions were crowned in the PJHL, the four conference winners – the Eagles, Grimsby Peach Kings and Stayner Siskins in addition to Lakeshore – competed in the first-ever Schmaltz Cup round robin tournament that saw all teams host one home game. Competition then moved to the University of Guelph last week where all clubs played their final round-robin game before they were seeded and the semi-final and final games were determined.
The Canadiens were the number one seed heading into the game on Sunday by virtue of a 2-1 record, with their only loss being to the Eagles and also by having the best goal differential of all teams in the mini-tournament.
In the championship game, Trevor Larue and Jake Nimmo both scored in regulation time while Brent Lace and Owen Manarin replied for Clarington to set the stage for Jake Weston’s championship clinching goal just 41 seconds into extra time.
Romano Liburdi made 30 saves for the Canadiens while Alex Lepizzera made 27 stops at the other end of the ice.
Plans to for public events to celebrate the Canadiens chanpionship in Lakeshore have yet to be finalized.
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