Butler contingent draws seasoned Windsor team in first round of Can-Am Games hockey
CRANBERRY TWP — Only one team from Canada came down to participate in the ice hockey portion of the Can-Am Games this weekend at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
The Pittsburgh Blueliners — a 14-player team consisting of players from Butler and Allegheny counties — drew the Essex Windsor Paramedics as their first-round opponent Friday morning.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t get more teams from Canada to join this tournament,” said event organizer and Canadian citizen Gary Gibson. “It would have been nice to get a team from Calgary, one from Winnipeg, one from Toronto, etc., to join the field.”
Essex Windsor proved more than enough for the Blueliners, skating its way to an 11-1 victory.
Like most adult hockey teams in Canada, Essex Windsor has been playing together for a long time. Gibson, a Can-Am Games board member since 1990, said there are separate police, fire department and EMS hockey leagues all across Canada and these teams play a lot of hockey together.
“We could definitely tell,” said Russell Brandon of East Brady, captain of the Pittsburgh Blueliners. “They were very organized and structured. That was an excellent team and they are good guys. They just enjoy playing hockey.”
As do the Blueliners.
The Butler-Allegheny contingent was scheduled to play two more games Friday, then play again at 8:10 a.m. Saturday. There are eight teams in the tournament. The quarterfinal round begins at 3:50 p.m. Saturday. The semifinals are at 11 a.m. Sunday with the gold medal game slated for 1 p.m. Sunday and the bronze medal game at 1:20 p.m.
Body checking is not permitted and games last roughly 70 minutes. Periods are 12, 12 and 15 minutes long.
“We had a previous roster of 90 players to draw from, but only 13 skaters and a goalie could make it,” Brandon said. “We have 911 personnel, police officers, firefighters … Some of our guys worked overnight, got off at 7 and came straight here. They will be working again tonight and doing the same thing.
“It’s just a passion that we all share for hockey. We all love to play hockey, regardless of the circumstances.”
In this case, the Blueliners were not able to get together for even a single practice before the tournament.
“Guys skated on their own to get ready for this, but we couldn’t get the team together before today,” Brandon said.
Other Butler County players on the roster include Drew Blasko, Jonathan Fair, Trevor Gilliland and Jeffrey Lewis.
Mike Trego, event organizer and an on-ice official for some of the games, joined Gibson in hoping more teams from Canada would have participated in the games.
“A couple of other Canada teams were supposed to come, but dropped out,” Trego said. “Still, we have 110 players in this tournament. That puts us in the top two in terms of number of athletes at an event in all of the Can-Am Games.
“We would have liked to have enough teams so we could have an over-35 division and a younger player division. Instead, all of these guys have to play together and the older guys have to try to keep up, playing three games in a day. It’s unfair, sure, but it’s the way we had to do it.”
Trego described the caliber of play Friday as “average adult hockey,” citing that some teams were much better than others.
“There’s definitely a gap here,” he said.
Gibson said towns of 40,000 people in Canada have five rinks, but none compared to the Lemieux facility.
“This entire setup is really nice,” he said. “I wish more of our teams would have come, just to see it and play here. That would have been worth the trip alone.”
CAN-AM GAMES ICE HOCKEY
UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex
Weekend Schedule
Saturday
Essex Windsor Paramedics vs. vs. Statie Grays, 8 a.m.
Pittsburgh Blueliners vs. Angry Beavers, 8:10 a.m.
Lancaster Fighting Amish vs. Crawford Police, 9:30 a.m.
Pittsburgh Fire vs. U.S. Marshals Services, 9:40 a.m.
Quarterfinals
No. 4 seed vs. No. 5 seed, 3:50 p.m.
No. 3 seed vs. No. 6 seed, 4:40 p.m.
No. 2 seed vs. No. 7 seed, 5:20 p.m.
No. 1 seed vs. No. 8 seed, 6:10 p.m.
Sunday
Semifinals
1-8 winner vs. 3-6 winner, 11 a.m.
2-7 winner vs. 4-5 winner, 11:10 a.m.
Medal Round
Gold medal game, 3 p.m.
Bronze medal game, 3:20 p.m.
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