NEWS

 

January 13, 2023, Mississauga, ON – Team Mark Giordano won the inaugural Ontario Junior Hockey All-Star Skills Competition during the 2022-23 OJHL All-Star Celebration presented by Dairy Farmers of Ontario at Eddie Bush Memorial Arena in downtown Collingwood.

Team Giordano from the South-East Conference took an early lead and held on for a 24-22 win over Team Zach Hyman from North-West for league bragging rights.

Individual skills event trophy winners were:

• Hardest shot - Luca Fasciano (Toronto Patriots), 92 km/h

• Accuracy shooting - Matt Cato (Trenton Golden Hawks), four targets on seven shots in 13.7 seconds

• Fastest skater -Tyler Fukakusa (Toronto Jr. Canadiens), 12.94-second lap

• Top goaltender - Noah Pak (Collingwood Blues), stopped eight of nine shots

Cato recently committed to play NCAA Division 1 hockey at Vermont. Fukakusa is committed to RIT in Rochester, NY and Pak to Yale University in the Ivy League.

Team Giordano won a very eventful and exciting speed-skate relay.

The Skills Competition was managed by Top Shot Hockey. The Ontario company operates skills challenges for Junior A, professional and minor hockey leagues. The company, which runs the ECHL all-star skills event, designed and produced the electronic targets used in the accuracy challenge by the NHL in Tampa and San Jose. 

Ben McCully of ROCK 95 Barrie served as on-ice MC, interviewing players and announcing results. Collingwood’s own Lauren Lesage sang the national anthem. 

Collingwood Town Crier Ken Templeman officially welcomed participants to the community.

The weekend event’s centrepiece is the OJHL All-star Game set for Saturday, Jan. 14, at 3 p.m. It will be televised nationally on CHCH, as part of the league’s Game of the Week schedule of games.  The game will feature the best players from across the 21-team OJHL as selected by the league’s competition committee.

At 7:30 p.m. the OJHL’s top prospects will clash in the InStat Top Prospects game featuring the OJHL’s top young talent (born in 2005 or 2006) from both OJHL conferences in 2022-23.

All net proceeds from the weekend events will go to the OJHL Foundation, which focuses on delivering the First Assist Program to aid players with mental health and life skills training. 

Click the link for tickets: 

https://collingwoodbluestpro.ticketpro.ca/en/pages/OJHLAllStar2023?aff=ojhl

Or call the Ticketpro Call Centre (1.888.655.9090)

About the OJHL – “League of Choice”

The Ontario Junior Hockey League is the largest Junior ‘A’ league operating under the auspices of the Canadian Junior Hockey League with 22 member clubs. A proud member of the CJHL and Ontario Hockey Association, the OJHL was originally named the Ontario Provincial Junior ‘A’ Hockey League and it was formed out of the Central Junior ‘B’ Hockey League in 1993-94. With a long and storied history of developing players for the next level, including U SPORTS, the NCAA, CHL, minor pro ranks and the NHL, the OJHL had more than 90 commitments in 2021-22 – including more than 25 NCAA Division I scholarships.

About the Dairy Farmers of Ontario – “Milk Up”

Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) is the marketing board for the largest sector of Ontario agriculture. Their mission is to provide leadership and excellence in the production and marketing of Canadian milk for a dynamic, profitable growing dairy industry. Ontario’s more than 3,400 dairy farmers, their families and employees are proud to produce high-quality milk for Canadians. For more information, visit www.milk.org.