Lukas Bernasiewicz
The U14 OHL Cup hosted by Joshua Creek Arenas in Oakville finally concluded after a weekend of wonderful games featuring upcoming on-ice talent.
The tournament featured 12 teams from across Ontario, going as far as North Bay.
After Saturday's quarter-final matchups concluded, the Sunday semi-finals were set.
The powerful Toronto Jr. Canadiens took on the Don Mills Flyers in the day's first semi-final.
Although they were the underdogs, the Don Mills Flyers got an early lead with a shorthanded goal near the end of the first period to go up 1-0.
In the second period, Don Mills went up 2-0 with a powerplay goal and started to feel the taste of victory.
But the Canadiens came back with a powerplay goal of their own to cut the lead to 2-1. Then, with nine seconds left in the period, Toronto scored a shorthanded goal to tie the game before the end of the second period.
Near the start of the third period, Toronto scored again to take the lead.
Then, quickly the Canadiens extended their lead to 4-2 with a goal by Kingston Harris that turned out to be the game-winning goal.
The Flyers got one more goal, but that was as close as they would get as Toronto added another goal to an empty net, wrapping up the game 5-3 and punching their ticket to the finals.
The second semi-final was between the Barrie Jr. Colts and the Toronto Titans.
Barrie struck first in the opening period to take an early lead, but Toronto answered quickly with a goal of their own to make the game 1-1.
The second period did not see any scoring but did see a tightly contested affair.
In the final period, Barrie finally broke the deadlock with a goal by Kaden Rolling to give the Colts a 2-1 lead.
That goal ended up being the game-winning goal as Barrie was able to shut the door and add an empty net goal to lock up a 3-1 win and a spot in the championship.
The championship was an all-time great match.
Toronto got out to an early 2-0 lead that they would hold onto until the end of the first period, but with less than a minute left, the Canadiens took a penalty that carried over to the second period.
On that powerplay in the second period, Barrie scored to get back in the game and then scored again to tie the game 2-2.
Toronto responded just three minutes later with a powerplay goal of their own by Lucas Quain to put the Canadiens up 3-2 heading into the third period.
The third period saw scoring chances for both teams, but no team could find the back of the net. The Toronto Jr. Canadiens won the game and the tournament.
A big win for the team and the organization. It was their second OHL Cup win this month after their U16 team won the OHL Cup at the beginning of the month.
