presents…

If you are looking for the best in Canadian Senior Hockey, plan to be in Sarnia, Ontario between April 10-14, 2001.

The Sarnia Sports and Entertainment Centre will be hosting the top four Senior "AAA" hockey clubs in the nation as they compete for the Allan Cup, a tournament steeped in history and tradition.

Donated by Sir H. Montague Allan in 1908, the Allan Cup is emblematic of the senior amateur hockey championship of Canada.

Legendary Allan Cup Champions with International experience include the Trail Smoke Eaters, the Toronto Granites, the Winnipeg Monarchs, the Edmonton Mercurys, the Penticton V's, the Whitby Dunlops (Assistant Captain Harry Sinden pictured) and the Belleville MacFarlands.

These days senior hockey is played mainly for the love of the game, but the door has again opened for Allan Cup Champions to represent Canada.

Last years winners, the Powell River (B.C.) Regals, represented Canada at the Nagano Cup tournament held during February 2001 in Japan. The Regals defeated their hosts 3-2 in overtime before losing in a heart-breaking shootout to the eventual Nagano Cup champions from Poland by a score of 6-5.

The teams completing in this year's tournament include the host Petrolia Squires and their Southwestern Ontario Senior "AAA" rival the Dundas Real McCoys. The Lloydminster (Saskatchewan) Border Kings are the Manitoba/Saskatchewan series winner and in the Alberta/B.C. series, the Stony Plain (Alberta) Eagles defeated Powell River to qualify as the fourth Allan Cup representative.

The four teams will play each other once in a round robin format. Two games per day are to be played on April 10, 11 and 12. The last place team from the round robin is eliminated while the winner gets a bye to the finals.

The second and third place teams in the round robin play their semifinal game on Friday, April 13, with the winner advancing to the Allan Cup Final on Saturday, April 14, against the winner of the round robin.

The Dundas Real McCoys lineup features the 2000-2001 Southwestern Ontario leading scorer and 1st team all-star left winger Paul Constantin.

I asked him about the level of talent on today's senior rosters compared with the talent level that he has faced in the last few years playing minor pro. "With us, Cambridge, Petrolia and Bothwell, it was pretty good hockey. You could put any of those teams in any of the leagues and they would do OK."

Constantin won NCAA Championship tournament MVP honours back in 1992 as he led Lake Superior State to the NCAA title in his senior year. This season he fired 54 goals and added 48 assists for a total of 102 points in 31 games with Dundas. His league leading totals were helped, in part, by a 7-goal outburst early in the season against the eventual first-place finishers of the Southwestern Ontario League, the Bothwell Bullets.

And what about that 7 goal game? It has been 83 years since the Montreal Canadiens legendary Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Malone fired 7 goals in a single game.

"It was our first game against Bothwell, I think it was the third or fourth game of the season. Bothwell was undefeated and in first place at the time. It was just one of those nights that everything I shot went in." With a smile he added, "It doesn't happen too often."

The Dundas line-up also features former Vancouver Canucks goaltender Frank Caprice (pictured with the Cardiff Devils). After playing overseas for the past few years he has returned home to a life familiar to all senior players, one of juggling hockey with family and job commitments.

Submitted by Stu McMurray, a member of the Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR).