Scarborough resident Stan Papulkas's near quarter century dream of an ethnic adult hockey tournament has become an established reality.
Not surprising given he's executive producer of diversity at OMNI Television, and also founder of the Canadian Multicultural Hockey League (CMHL) that held its third annual tournament the last week of December. Preliminary round game venues included Ted Reeve Arena in East York, Weston Arena in York and Scarborough Centennial Recreation Centre.
Papulkas' idea for a CMHL goes back to 1981.
"I tried to get hockey people in the know involved with this tourney, but they did not know the ethnic communities. Conversely the ethnic hockey community had no contacts with said hockey people. I realized I had connections to both groups, and approached both with the hockey tourney concept."
The tourney started with 16 teams in 2005. It has grown to 33 teams this year divided into three divisions, including an eight-team women's division. The three playoff finals took place Dec. 30 at Herbert Carnegie Centennial Centre in North York where the majority of games, including most of the playoffs, occurred.
The True North Division title game involved Russian Kremlins and West Indian Stars. The first period was wide open, with both teams tallying twice. Kremlins took control in the second period, outscoring the Stars three to one, and coasted to a 6-3 win.
Kremlins team captain/coach and Scarborough resident Vladimir Petrov said his team knew it would be a fast-paced match against the Stars. "We had to skate hard every shift, to best use our hockey skills," he said. "We were confident our offence would score goals and knew we could not afford too many penalties, and give the Stars a chance to rally back. Despite losing in the preliminary round, we had the strongest team in the division and knew if we played 'Kremlins Hockey', we could win it all."
Kremlins forward and North York resident Roman Grigoriev said that "defence is the key to winning any game, and our back-checking throughout the final match prevented any comeback effort." He added that player/head coach Lev Sadat "knew when to slow down, or speed up, our game tempo. He pointed out our mistakes like too much rushing with the puck, instead of dumping and chasing along the boards."
The women's division final involved Ojibwa Northern Storm, and Japanese Typhoon.
East York resident and Typhoon forward Julia Shoniker stole the puck at centre and came in all alone, deked the goalie and slipped the puck into the open net for the game's first goal. Northern Storm dominated the play afterwards, and took a 4-2 lead into the third period. Typhoon turned up their game play and dominated thoroughly, with several point-blank scoring chances turned aside by Ojibwa's goalie. Typhoon scored with the extra attacker in the last minute, but it wasn't enough as they lost 4-3.
Typhoon captain and Scarborough resident Lisa Tanaka said the team, "jelled as unit game by game which is a tremendous testament to everyone involved. Our head coach Paul Marubashi turned us into a high quality squad very quickly, was always a calming presence and kept us focused throughout."
Etobicoke resident and former NHLer Peter Zezel is CMHL's ambassador and played on the Serbian White Eagles tourney team. Zezel and Papulkas have a personal friendship that goes back many years. "When Peter heard I needed help in putting on this tourney, he pitched right in as a player and as a behind-the-scenes organizer."
Zezel recognized Papulkas's efforts, "and what this tourney represents, to all the various communities every year. The players, and quality of hockey, continually improves as more and more individuals from various communities hear about the CMHL tourney, and want to compete in it."
The Premier Division final saw the Polish Hussars and Nubian Kings compete for the title.
In the championship game, the Hussars jumped to a quick start and led 3-0 near the halfway mark. The Kings subsequently rallied for two goals, and tied it in the third period. At 11:07, eight seconds after a Kings penalty, Stefan Kostuch rifled a shot into the top corner for his second goal of the game, and provided the Hussars with the 4-3 win.
Hussars winning netminder and Etobicoke resident William Maier said everyone on the team, "played beyond their means, throughout. We may have not been the strongest team on paper, but we had the most quality and depth with everybody understanding what their on ice role was."
Maier added that head coach Rafal Omasta kept the team on track throughout, "so we wouldn't get ahead of ourselves. We had a lot of adrenalin going after our playoff win against the Irish, who had never lost a CMHL tourney game in three years. We're the new 'Irish', for now (Hussars having also won CMHL's 2007 spring tourney)".
Papulkas is hoping to grow the CMHL and admitted planning each tourney begins almost as soon as the previous one ends. "It's a challenge to come up with a proper schedule, given we don't want scenarios where certain teams playing each other would pose a problem," he said. "While happy with our arenas, I would like to eventually obtain a facility with four ice pads, so games can be centralized in one location. Chesswood Arena in North York is a possibility. We hope for more publicity for the tourney in the future, perhaps beginning with games on Rogers Television."