GrayJay Sports
North Sydney, N.S. — An age-old Cape Breton tradition returned as five teams contested the annual Mae Kibyuk Memorial Green and Gold tournament at the Emera Centre in North Sydney.
And it was an off-island squad that captured the first high school hockey tournament to be held in Cape Breton since February 2020 when Riverview hosted the Red Cup Classic just weeks before the start of the pandemic.
On Sunday afternoon, the Dartmouth Spartans overcame a 2-0 deficit to claim a 3-2 overtime victory over the Riverview Ravens in the championship match. Ironically, Riverview (2017 and 2018 champions) also suffered an overtime defeat in the 2019 Green and Gold title game that was won by the Glace Bay Panthers.
This year, the five teams taking part in the competition were the host Memorial Marauders, Riverview, Glace Bay, Sydney Academy and the Spartans. They played a round robin format with Dartmouth emerging with a 4-0 record. Riverview (3-1) advanced to the final as the second-place team, with Glace Bay (2-2), Sydney Academy (1-3) and Memorial (0-4) rounding out the field.
The Ravens, who lost 4-1 to the Spartans in their round robin game, came out strong and led 2-0 after goals by Liam Robertson and Brennan Moore. However, Dartmouth fought back starting with an early third-period power play goal by Matt Jones. The Spartans drew even in the third period on a goal by Luke Rozee. They won the game with 31 seconds remaining in the overtime period when Noah Comeau scored to give his team the tournament title.
The competition kicked off Thursday when all four local teams hit the ice. Riverview defeated Glace Bay 2-1 in the opener, while the host Marauders lost 3-2 to Sydney Academy.
Organizers say attendance was good throughout the four-day tournament and would have been higher for the championship game had Memorial made the final. The well-dressed Marauder players attended the title match.
