St. Paul Canadiens repeat as Central Canada Cup champs

While a league championship is their main goal, ending your season on a winning note against strong competition, particularly in front of the Clancy Richard faithful, puts a fitting bow on the season for the St. Paul Canadiens. 

The hosts are the champs!

The St. Paul Canadiens celebrated Easter by repeating as Central Canada Cup champions after defeating fellow Alberta team in the Wetaskiwin Icemen with a 3-2 win for the trophy.

Revived with the previous Keystone Cup trophy in 2024 in Flin Flon, Manitoba, the Canadiens now can boast as two-time champs.

“The most fun ever,” said goaltender Mitch Webb about the tournament experience, just moments after closing out the victory.

“It definitely puts St. Paul on the map and brings a good name to this place.”

The five day tournament began on Wednesday, as the OCN Storm, Current River Storm, and Saskatoon Royals filled out the competition.

St. Paul’s journey through the competition was not always smooth. After beginning the draw with a 6-3 win over the OCN Storm, and 4-0 shutout over Current River, a draw to Wetaskiwin, and a loss to Saskatoon during the round-robin, set up a rematch to the Royals in the semifinals.

That’s where they avenged their loss with a 5-4 win. Wetaskiwin did similarly. After losing 5-1 earlier to Current River, the Icemen stomped them in the rematch 10-1 to queue up the final on Sunday.

In the meantime, the Saskatoon Royals took home bronze with a convincing 5-1 win.

In the leadup to the tournament, however, it was confirmed that Head Coach Corey deMoissac, as well as assistant coach Scott Chartrand, will not return next year.

That, plus quality veterans like Rylan Cardinal, Kelton McAuley, and Mitch Webb, also move on as this year closes.

Celebration & Post-Game thoughts

“The boys worked hard. This is not what we want, we want to win a league championship. But we have strong hockey clubs in our league and we want to compete against the Wainwrights, the Lloyds, the Vermilions, the Ice, Killam — and these boys deserved it….Corey and Scott have done a fantastic job…I’m very proud of Rylan [Cardinal] and Kelton [McAuley] and Mitch [Webb].” – GM Dean Smyl.

“All the people I’ve had the pleasure of working with for the past 16 years with the Canadiens, it’s great for the boys, and the community. It’s always great to end on a championship for sure.” – Head Coach Corey deMoissac 

“It’s meant so much to me, coming so far from home. I think it was a lot of mindset and a lot of hard work and commitment to the team. I love all these boys. It’s sad. I’m not even so much happy we won but sad we’ll be missing guys next year.” – Connor Goofers, 17-year-old rookie.