TRENTON, Ont. — The Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL), in partnership with the City of Quinte West and in conjunction with the Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL), Maritime Hockey League (MHL), Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL) and Quebec Junior Hockey League (QJHL), today released the schedule and format for the 2017 Eastern Canada Cup All-Star Challenge.
The seventh annual All-Star Showcase event is being hosted for the third time by the OJHL and will take place from November 13-15 at the Duncan McDonald Memorial Community Gardens home of the Trenton Golden Hawks of the OJHL.
Having been created as a competitive alternative to the annual league All-Star Games and debuted in 2011, hosted by the CCHL’s Smiths Falls Bears.
The uniquely formatted tournament is played with two 20-minute halves (instead of three periods), focusing on high-paced and intense action.
This year’s event will feature 10 teams from five leagues with the breakdown as follows:
CCHL – 2 teams
MHL – 1 team
NOJHL – 1 team
OJHL – 4 teams
QJHL – 2 teams
The teams will be split into two pools and play a round-robin against other teams in their pool.
All teams will be re-seeded after the round-robin to determine the quarter-finals schedule with play-downs taking place to the championship game, scheduled for Wednesday, November 15 at 7:30pm.
Other unique attributes of the tournament format include:
Tied games go immediately to a three-player shootout
Maximum of five, 1997 birth-year players on each team
| MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2017 | ||||
| GAME # | TIME | GROUP | VISITOR | HOME |
| 1 | 10 a.m. | A | OJHL Coffey | OJHL Hawerchuk |
| 2 | 11:30 a.m. | B | OJHL Nieuwendyk | OJHL Oates |
| 3 | 1 p.m. | A | CCHL Robinson | NOJHL |
| 4 | 2:30 p.m. | B | CCHL Yzerman | MHL |
| 5 | 4 p.m. | A | QJHL 1 | OJHL Coffey |
| 6 | 5:30 p.m. | B | QJHL 2 | OJHL Nieuwendyk |
| 7 | 7 p.m. | A | CCHL Robinson | OJHL Hawerchuk |
| 8 | 8:30 p.m. | B | CCHL Yzerman | OJHL Oates |
| TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2017 | ||||
| GAME # | TIME | GROUP | VISITOR | HOME |
| 9 | 10 a.m. | A | NOJHL | QJHL 1 |
| 10 | 11:30 a.m. | B | MHL | QJHL 2 |
| 11 | 1 p.m. | A | OJHL Coffey | CCHL Robinson |
| 12 | 2:30 p.m. | B | OJHL Nieuwendyk | CCHL Yzerman |
| 13 | 4 p.m. | A | OJHL Hawerchuk | NOJHL |
| 14 | 5:30 p.m. | B | OJHL Oates | MHL |
| 15 | 7 p.m. | A | QJHL 1 | CCHL Robinson |
| 16 | 8:30 p.m. | B | QJHL 2 | CCHL Yzerman |
| WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2017 | ||||
| GAME # | TIME | GROUP | VISITOR | HOME |
| 17 | 9:30 a.m. | A | NOJHL | OJHL Coffey |
| 18 | 11 a.m. | B | MHL | OJHL Nieuwendyk |
| 19 | 12:30 p.m. | A | OJHL Hawerchuk | QJHL 1 |
| 20 | 2 p.m. | B | OJHL Oates | QJHL 2 |
| 21 | 3:30 p.m. | Semi-Final 1 | 2B | 1A |
| 22 | 5 p.m. | Semi-Final 2 | 2A | 1B |
| 23 | 7:30 p.m. | Championship Game | SF 1 | SF 2 |
For the full tournament schedule and breakdown, please CLICK HERE.
ABOUT THE EASTERN CANADA CUP ALL-STAR CHALLENGE
The Eastern Canada Cup All-Star Challenge is one of the premier Junior A hockey events in the country and provides tremendous exposure for the top prospects of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL), Central Canada Junior Hockey League (CCHL), Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL), Quebec Junior Hockey League (QJHL) and the Maritime Junior Hockey League (MHL) to play in front of scouts from all over the hockey world – including the NHL, NCAA, CHL and Canadian universities and colleges. Additionally, it also serves as a player identification event for the coaching staff for Team Canada East in player selection for the yearly training camp and subsequent entry in to the World Junior A Challenge.
