HIGH ACHIEVERS WEEKEND WRAP: Local hockey teams win 7 titles at 25th Bell Capital Cup

By Martin Cleary

The Bell Capital Cup minor hockey extravaganza celebrated its 25th anniversary at the end of 2025 and four international teams returned home with golden memories.

Seven National Capital and area teams kept pace and also finished one of the world’s largest hockey tournaments with championship trophies in their dressing rooms, while another 12 local teams reached their gold-medal games.

The tournament attracted more than 280 competitive, house league and para hockey teams from Ottawa, Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, Austria, Japan, South Korea and Kazakhstan. The players were divided into 17 age and ability categories from U10 to U13 as well as one para hockey class of four teams.

More than 600 games were played in arenas throughout the city and teams were guaranteed a minimum of three or four games. All championship games were staged at the Canadian Tire Centre, the home of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.

The boys’ U13 AA final was one of the most interesting as it was an all-international matchup. Undefeated GIHA Korea Blue scored late for a 4-3 win over Carinthian Eagles of Villach, Austria.

Sejun Kim connected for the dramatic game-winning goal, which came 25 seconds after the Eagles had tied the game at 3-3. Kim’s clutch goal was his second of the game and his ninth of the tournament. He placed second in his division’s scoring race with nine goals, six assists and 15 points.

Seohoo Hwang also connected for two goals for the team from Gyeonggi province of Korea. Hwang compiled seven goals and five assists for 12 points and a fourth-place ranking.

In the semifinals, Korea defeated Upper Ottawa Valley Aces 6-1 as Hael Cho counted three goals. Carinthian scored one goal in each of the three periods to turn back Gloucester 3-1.

The Greater Bay Lions of Hong Kong notched four goals in each of the second and third periods and outscored Cumberland Grads 8-2 to win the gold medal in the boys’ U12 AA final. Henry Jung was the top point scorer in this division with 11 goals, six assists and 17 points in six wins. Teammate Patrick Kongma ranked second at 10 goals and three assists.

In the boys’ U11 AAA final, Middlesex Islanders of Tyngsborough/North Andover, Massachusetts, needed overtime to slip past the Quinte Red Devils 5-4.

Cameron Boepple recorded his second game-winning goal in as many matches and finished as the division’s top point scorer with nine goals, four assists and 13 points. He also scored the opening goal in the 9-0 semifinal win over the Rideau St. Lawrence Kings.

In U11 house B, New York state’s Oswego Buccaneers (Cummings) exploded for five goals in the third period and defeated the Ambassadeurs of Gatineau 6-0. Sully Smegelsky scored the Buccaneers’ final two goals and went on to win the scoring title with 13 goals, two assists and 15 points in six games. Malcolm Allison earned the shutout.

Here are the highlights from the other 13 championship games:

· Boys’ U11 A – Gatineau Jets defeated Stittsville Rams A2 3-0 on goals by Eloi Lalonde, Edouard Cameron and Arnaud Gauthier. The shutout went to Alyson Leblond;

· Boys’ U13 A – Almonte Pakenham Thunder defeated Stittsville Rams 3-2 (overtime) as Ankush Balekar’s second goal of the game was the decisive marker. In the Thunder’s 2-1 semi-final victory over the Oswego Buccaneers, Balekar scored a pair of third-period goals to send his team to the final. He topped all point scorers with 10 goals, one assist and 11 points in six wins.

· Boys’ U13 B – Gatineau Remparts defeated Osgoode Rideau Snipes 4-2 as the winners counted the final three goals of the game, including the game-winner from Mylik Martin.

· Boys’ U12 AAA – Eastern Ontario Wild defeated Myers Automotive 7-0 as Alessandro Paravan tallied five goals and Emery Toste added a pair along with one assist. Liam Williamson had the shutout. Paravan and Toste were the No. 2 and No. 3 point scorers respectively at 11-2-13 and 7-6-13.

· Boys’ U12 A – Castor River Canucks defeated Mississippi Thunder Kings 4-3 (overtime) as Samuel Dauphinais notched the decisive goal. Quinn Devlin of the Kings was the leading point scorer in their tournament with 11 goals, six assists and 17 points in seven games.

· Boys’ U10 AAA – Kanata Blazers defeated Ottawa Valley Silver Seven White 7-1 as Gavin McGregor scored three goals and Cooper Sweeney and Oliver Swan had two goals apiece in a winning cause. Division top scorer Jake Gyurcsak, who notched 15 goals, six assists and 21 points in seven games, scored for Silver Seven White.

· Boys’ U11 AA – Sénateurs Outaouais defeated Ottawa Valley Silver Seven 6-0 as Ryan Chiasson, three goals, Michael Barke, two goals, and Nathan Louis-Seize, one goal, provided the offence and Milann St-Gelais picked up the shutout. Louis-Seize led all point scorers with 10 goals, five assists and 15 points, while Chiasson counted 11 goals and two assists.

· Boys’ U11 C – Bastions Blainville defeated Muskrat Team 1 7-0 as Liam Lafleur paced the winners with four goals and one assist and Felix Charlebois had the shutout. Lafleur was second on the point-scoring list with 12 goals, two assists and 14 points, while Muskrat’s Kohan McDonald topped the ranking with 17 goals, two assists and 19 points.

· Boys’ 13 AAA – Upper Canada Cyclones defeated York Simcoe Express 3-2 (overtime) as Cohen Doyle struck for the winner at 2:21 in the extra frame. York Simcoe’s Jaxon Kelly was the leading point scorer with 12 goals, five assists and 17 points.

· Boys’ U13 A – Kapuskasing Jr. Flyers defeated Mississippi Thunder Kings 6-0 as Cade Audet sparked the winners with four goals and goaltender Brayden Theriault stopped every shot. Audet was the top point scorer in his class with 13 goals, three assists and 16 points in seven games. The Kings’ Gabriel Leroux and Joseph Brophy had 10 goals each in the tournament.

· Boys’ U10 A – Sarnia Jr. Sting defeated Skaneateles (New York) Lakers 4-1 as the winners recorded a pair of goals in each of the first two periods. Maddox Huyben was the leading Sting point scorer with eights goals, one assist and nine points.

· Boys’ U11 A – Georgian Bay Islanders defeated Stittsville Rams 4-2 as four different players celebrated goals for the winners. Ben Lacroix and Reese Sabourin registered the Rams’ goals. Lacroix was the top U11 A point scorer with seven goals, four assists and 11 points in seven games.

· Para hockey – The Rocket de Montréal won all four games to earn the gold medal, while the Ottawa Sledge Hawks, 0-4, were led by Hudson Thomas with three goals.

GEE-GEES WIN GOLD MEDAL AT RINGETTE’S UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE CUP

Four different players provided the goals as the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees edged the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Ooks 4-2 in the final of the University Challenge Cup women’s ringette national tournament in Guelph.

Sofia Morello, Olivia McEnery, Lauren Krauss and Kiera Bell scored for the Gee-Gees, while Morello and McEnery also added one assist each. Kristyna Sammon had two assists.

The Gee-Gees, who posted a 6-2-1 preliminary-round record, turned back the University of Calgary in a mini-game, overtime shootout to qualify for the championship final.

Carleton University Ravens were 4-4-1 and reached the consolation final, but lost 5-2 to McMaster University.

Rhian Dentelbeck was the best offensive player for the Gee-Gees with nine goals, six assists for 15 points, while Olivia Weylie sparked the Ravens at six goals, seven assists and 13 points.

SILVER MEDAL FOR uOTTAWA AT WESMEN WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT

The University of Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s volleyball team headed West to end the 2025 portion of this season and reached the final of the Wesmen Classic 58 tournament at the University of Winnipeg.

The Wesman defeated the Gee-Gees 25-13, 25-23, 26-24 in the championship final. The Gee-Gees reached the gold-medal game with a 25-20, 29-27, 25-22 semi-final decision over the Brandon University Bobcats.

In round-robin action, Ottawa defeated Brandon 25-19, 25-21, 25-21, lost to Winnipeg 25-12, 25-22, 25-22, and turned back Canadian Mennonite University Blazers 25-23, 21-25, 27-25, 25-16.

WORLD JUNIOR HOCKEY BRONZE FOR COLE BEAUDOIN

Kanata’s Cole Beaudoin won a bronze medal with Team Canada at the World Junior Men’s Hockey Championship in Minnesota as the Canadians downed Finland 6-3 for the final place on the podium.

Beaudoin scored seven points over seven games at the under-20 tournament. In Canada’s two most important games to reach the medal round, the Barrie Colts forward scored two goals (including the game winner) and an assist in a 7-4 victory over Finland to conclude group play and a goal and an assist in a 7-1 quarter-final win over Slovakia.

Canada fell 6-4 to Czech Republic in the semi-final after earlier beating the Czechs 7-4 to open the competition, and also topped Latvia and Denmark in the preliminary round.

TOP-10 FOR LOCAL BOBSLEDDERS & SKIER ON WORLD CUP CIRCUIT

CanAm Strength and Conditioning’s Mike Evelyn O’Higgins and Keaton Bruggeling took a solid step forward in their Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic qualification pursuit with a ninth-place finish in a World Cup four-man bobsleigh competition in Winterberg, Germany, pushing for Canadian pilot Taylor Austin. Evelyn O’Higgins was also 19th with Austin in a two-man race.

Ottawa pilot Pat Norton will need improved results in the final two World Cup races (Jan. 10-11 in St. Moritz, Switzerland and Jan. 17-18 in Altenberg, Germany) in the quest to secure three Canadian men’s bobsleigh places on the start line in Milano-Cortina. Norton missed the top-20 cutoff for second runs in both the four-man (22nd) and two-man (25th) events in Winterberg.

CanAm product Jay Dearborn is racking up points on the North American Cup circuit and finds himself inside the Olympic qualification rankings. Now a pilot, the 2022 Olympic brakeman finished second and third in two-man races in Lake Placid, NY, and third in a four-man race.

On the heels of a fourth-place finish in Austria, St. Isidore, ON’s Valérie Grenier earned another top-10 result in a World Cup alpine skiing giant slalom race by placing ninth in Slovenia. The Mont-Tremblant skier who medalled on her home hill earlier this season is ranked eighth overall on the circuit through six of 10 GS races.

TEAM FRLAN QUALIFIES FOR SWISS CUP CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP

The Katrina Frlan curling rink will be spending part of February in Switzerland.

Team Frlan rallied with an eighth-place 1-2 record in the preliminary round to win four straight playoff games and the women’s title at the World Financial Group Canadian Junior Cup at the Oshawa Curling Club.

Frlan counted six points in the final two ends, including four in the seventh, and rallied to beat Cassidy Dundas of St. Adolphe, MB, 9-4 in the women’s gold-medal game. The win earned Team Frlan a berth in the Swiss Cup, which will take place Feb. 9-16 in Bern, Switzerland.

The Huntley Curling Club team of Frlan, Erika Wainwright, Samantha Wall, Lauren Norman and coach Byron Scott reached the final by defeating Megan Stopera of Minneapolis, Minnesota, 7-4, in the semifinals; Summer St-James of Pointe-Claire, PQ, 5-4, in the quarterfinals; and Aili Chabot of Thunder Bay, ON, 9-4, in the round of 16.

On the men’s side, Kemptville’s Aaron Benning, 3-2, and Jonathan Biemans of North Gower, ON, 1-3, reached the quarterfinals.

BROOKE HENDERSON AMONG MANY LOCAL WINNERS OF YEAR-END AWARDS

The 2025 calendar year came to a close with a number of prominent Ottawa and area athletes receiving special awards for their achievements last year.

Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club’s Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, ON, was honoured twice by the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. Her victory at the CPKC Canadian Women’s Open championship on the Mississauga Golf Club course was pinpointed as the Story of the Year.

Henderson also was named the country’s female professional player of the year. She was 24th on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

Isaiah Ibit of Ottawa and Hunter Thomson of Calgary shared the association’s top male amateur player of the year award. In his first year at Kent State University, Ibit was named the Mid-American Conference freshman of the year and was runner-up at the 2025 Canadian men’s amateur championship at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club, losing in a playoff.

Golf Canada also named Ibit to its 2026 men’s national team. The Team Canada NextGen squad includes Ann-Sophie Bourgault of Gatineau and Chase Jerome of Ottawa.

Tennis doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski won the WTA’s Peachy Kellmeyer Player Service Award for the fourth time in her career. The award underlines her “continued support for players and the wider tennis community.” Dabrowski also received the award in 2022, 2020 and 2019.

For the second year in a row, Vanessa Gilles and Jonathan David were selected the respective women’s and men’s players of the year by Canada Soccer.

Gilles, who played eight games for Canada last year and scored one of her two goals to help her squad win the Pinatar Cup 2-0 over Mexico, played for Club Olympique Lyonnais Féminin in 2025 before transferring to FC Bayern Munich. She combined for seven goals last season.

David, a three-time national player-of-the-year award winner (the other time in 2019), played 14 games for Canada in 2025, scoring six goals and adding two assists. He was one of the top players in France’s premier league, while playing for LOSC Lille, and was a free transfer in July to Juventus in Italy. David also was selected the CONCACAF men’s player of the year.