Starting Thursday November 17th the 31st annual Monctonian AAA challenge begins with the first games starting at 8:45am. The site is the Red Ball Internet Centre in Moncton New Brunswick. The Monctonian is a tournament solely for Midget AAA (15-17 years old) teams, and is the largest and most heavily scouted tournament of its kind in all of Canada.
The tournament consists of 2 categories Major Midget and Minor Midget. This year there are 50 teams participating which is an all time high. The Major division has 22 teams, 8 from Nova Scotia, 5 from New Brunswick, 3 from Newfoundland, 3 from Alberta, 2 from Prince Edward Island (PEI) and 1 from Ontario. The Minor Division boasts 28 teams. Nova Scotia is represented by 12 teams, New Brunswick 7, PEI 6, Alberta 2 and Newfoundland 1.
Last year there were 154 scouts at the tournament. They represented teams from Major Junior, Junior A, Canadian Universities and US Colleges.
Some teams to watch this year are the two defending champions, both from PEI. The Charlottetown Islanders (Major) and the Mid-Isle Matrix (Minor) are both considered contenders. The 3 Calgary, Alberta teams and the lone team from Ontario have to be considered as threats in the Major division. The Host team Moncton Flyers are having a stellar season in the NB-PEI Major Midget League and are the early favorites. In the Minor Division, the Mid-Isle Matrix and the Kenn Valley Spartans (NB) are both coming in with identical 11-0 win-loss records in their respective leagues. The 2 teams from Calgary should also be considered as legitimate contenders.
Stay tuned fro daily updates beginning tomorrow.
- Mike Lord
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