Monctonian Hockey Challenge

Our Highlanders boys hockey team was a last-minute addition to one of the top U18AAA tournaments in Atlantic Canada this past weekend. On Tuesday night around 10:30 pm the team found out they would be participating in the Monctonian U18AAA Hockey Challenge.

Being invited to this tournament was very exciting for the program and especially the players. The tournament had 62 teams in three divisions and hosted plenty of major junior, college, and Junior A scouts from around the region. This was a great opportunity for our players to showcase their games in front of a lot of eyes.

The event was also a great opportunity for our program to get to compete against some of the top U18 AAA teams in Atlantic Canada. Our Highlanders finished the tournament with one win and two losses. We opened the tournament with a tight 3-2 loss to the South Shore Mustangs U18 team. Tied 2-2 in the third period we couldn't overcome some penalty trouble and ended up losing a tight one. In the second game of the tournament, we matched up against the Saint John Vitos U18 team. A very back and forth game saw us down 3-2 with under five minutes to go in the game. With about three minutes to go, the Highlanders had a puck lay on the goal line before being knocked away by the Vitos. Soon after this the Vitos would score two empty net goals to make it a 5-2 final. The final game saw us match-up against the Dartmouth Steele Subaru U18 team. In one of the more exciting games of the season, the game went into overtime, where Alex Doyle '26 was the hero clinching the win one minute and 30 seconds into overtime. You can view the game winning goal here. The Highlanders finished the tournament off with a 5-4 OT victory and enjoyed a happy bus ride home!

The past weekend was a great team building opportunity and gave all of our players valuable experience playing in one of the top U18 tournaments in the region.

We pick right back up into our MPHL season when we travel to RNS for back-to-back games vs the Riverhawks November 30, and December 1.