1976/77 Dutcher & Corbett Elmvale Peewee Hockey Team Narrative
The Elmvale Dutcher and Corbett 1976-1977 Peewee team was part of the Elmvale Minor Hockey Association and the Ontario Minor Hockey Association in the Peewee “C” category. The team enjoyed a very successful season under the coaching of Ross McConnell, Manager, Brian Swan and Trainer, Ed Robertson.
The team participated in the Georgian Bay Minor Hockey League where they went undefeated during the regular season. The first lost for this team did not come until February 5th, 1977 in game two of their preliminary OMHA series versus Stayner. Before this lost, the team had gone undefeated in thirty two games. The team was a champion at the Ayr Minor hockey tournament in January 1977.
The biggest accomplishment for the 1976-77 Peewee team that year was being crowned International Silver Stick Champions in the “B” Division (towns with less than 8000 population). Elmvale was the smallest centre at this championship. To qualify for this event, the team was Champions at the Regional Silver Stick in Wasaga Beach in December 1976. This accomplishment was no easy feat as the team endured a major winter storm on their way to Michigan and they were involved in a minor traffic accident which held the bus up for over seven hours. The Peewee team had left Elmvale on the Friday morning at 9:00am and they did not arrive at their motel in Sarnia till 6:45am Saturday morning. The team was only able to get a couple hours of sleep before their first game which had been rescheduled due to the weather.
Elmvale’s first game of the tournament took three periods of overtime to decide but Tom VanNatter scored the winning goal in the sixth period of play. Elmvale continued on to the championship game where they took a quick 3-0 lead and they held on for a 4-2 win to capture the Silver Stick and championship trophy. The players commented that they felt like they were professionals in this game because of the way they were treated. Four players of the team made the North American Silver Stick All-Star team. Kevin Steele and Duane Janes for Best Goaltenders. Tom VanNatter was voted Best Centre and Jim Clement was voted Best Right Defenseman.
After their Silver Stick accomplishments, the team participated in the Georgian Bay League playdowns and won the League Championship and also at the same time set their sights on an Ontario Championship in the Ontario Minor Hockey Association. The team defeated Stayner in the preliminary round, then defeated Sutton in the quarter-finals. During this series, the team had to be escorted out of Sutton by the police because of some unruly fans. They then took on Frankford in the semi-finals and won this series 3-1 to gain a place in the Ontario finals against a strong team from Kingsville, Ontario. All the games in the final were entertaining and close in scores with two of the games going to overtime but Elmvale could not prevail and they were Ontario finalists.
Many of the players from the team went on to play Junior hockey. Ross McConnell went on to coach at the Junior C and Junior B levels and Tom VanNatter went on to play in the Ontario Hockey League and the University level.
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