Major development
As the no. 6 seed of the eight teams that took to the ice for the Great North Under 18 Hockey League championship tournament, the Timmins Majors became the cinderella story of the 2022 event.
The Majors went through the round robin portion of the tournament with a record of 1-0-2. After holding both the no. 2 seed North Bay Under 16 Trappers and the no. 3 seed Sudbury Under 18 Nickel Capitals to a pair of 2-2 ties, the Majors overwhelmed the host Kapuskasing Flyers by a 6-2 score to advance to the semi finals against the no. 1 seed Soo Jr. Greyhounds.
And while Timmins was upended by the Soo by a 6-2 margin in the semis, the loss did little to tarnish what the Majors accomplished at the tournament and how much they improved during the regular season en route to a 9-14-2 record.
Kevin Walker, the 27-year old rookie head coach of the Timmins troops, had much good to say about the advancement of his Majors.
“I loved the confidence we played with coming into the weekend,” Walker relayed to Hockey News North. “Our guys have been resilient all year and trusted the process and we were finally being rewarded for it.
“Our leadership group, especially our captain Bradley Moore, did a great job of leading by example and playing great 200 foot hockey. The youngster, Ryan Armitage, has been extremely hungry around the net and was being rewarded. I loved the way our D were moving the puck. Our whole blue line has been good but I thought Zach Secord really stood out for us. Our goaltending was great and gave us a chance to win every game.
“At the end of it all it wasn’t the outcome we wanted but we look forward to building off our young core for next season,” added Walker.
