Truro Bearcats 25th Anniversary Commemoration
Mar 10, 2023 17:39:03 GMT -5
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Post by Scooter on Mar 10, 2023 17:39:03 GMT -5
The 1998 Allan Cup champion Truro TSN Bearcats are being honored tonight during a Maritime Junior Hockey League game between the Amherst Ramblers and the Truro Bearcats. April 11 will make the 25th anniversary of the Bearcats defeating the London Admirals 6-1 in the finals.
www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/communities/1998-senior-tsn-bearcats-to-celebrate-allan-cup-titles-silver-anniversary-100830494/
1998 senior TSN Bearcats to celebrate Allan Cup title’s silver anniversary
National champions reuniting at RECC March 10
Richard MacKenzie · Journalist | Posted: March 4, 2023, 12:16 a.m. | Updated: March 4, 2023, 7:20 p.m.
TRURO, N.S. — In 1998; Google was founded, U.S. President Bill Clinton denied having ‘sexual relations’ with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Saving Private Ryan was big at the box office, E.R. was tops on the small screen and everybody was reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
And the Truro TSN Senior AAA Bearcats team fulfilled a multi-year mission on April 11, 1998, by capturing the national Allan Cup championship and they did so on home-ice at the Colchester Legion Stadium, where not only every seat was filled — standing spaces, no matter how congested, were as well.
The Bearcats, coming off unsuccessful tournaments in Stony Plain, Alta., Unity, Sask., and Powell River, B.C. the three previous seasons, and knowing the team would most likely be disbanded following the event as owner Stu Rath was also in his first season with the revived Jr. A Bearcats program, played with a determination and ‘will to win’ as big as Colchester County itself.
After scoring a 5-1 victory to open the four-team tournament over the defending champion Powell River Regals, the Bearcats and Ile-des-Chênes North Stars from Manitoba played to a spirited 1-1 tie. In their final round-robin game, the Bearcats punched their ticket to the final by defeating the London (Ont.) Admirals 5-3, and it would be the Admirals they would meet in the final where they won, convincingly, 6-1.
The Bearcats exploded out of the gates to take a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period on goals by defencemen Darren Welsh (a tournament all-star) and Barry Harrietha, as well as hometown player Sandy MacKenzie who scored shorthanded.
Truro's stalwart captain Brain Melanson would exchange goals with London’s J.J. Wrobel in the second, before MacKenzie would score again in the third, along with Bearcats’ hard-nosed forward Jason DeCoste, to more than seal the victory and deliver to Truro the national title.
Truro goaltender Jason White, solid throughout the event, was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
The Truro Daily News extensive coverage of the senior Bearcats’ historic win – only the second Allan Cup championship for Nova Scotia after the 1935 Halifax Wolverines. It remains so to this day. Contributed - Contributed
25 years ago
That victory came 25-years-ago and to help recognize the silver anniversary, members of the TSN Bearcats, as well as the historic and prestigious trophy they won that night, will be at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre (RECC) this Friday, March 10, for a pre-game ceremony, just before the junior Bearcats finish off their home-ice regular season schedule by taking on the Amherst Ramblers.
Puck drop for the game is 7 p.m.
The ceremony will include a video tribute to the team which entered the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame in 2014 as only the second Allan Cup champions from the province. The first, the Halifax Wolverines, came all the way back in 1935.
Team members available to return for the ceremony, a vast majority is being reported, will be introduced one-by-one.
“It should be a great time,” Harrietha said about looking forward to the anniversary event.
“Time does not stay still, and I have lost some great teammates over the last few years. So to share a night with these guys to reminisce on our great achievement … it pulls on my heartstrings. We needed each other to get that job done,” he added, a nod to the recent passing (Jan. 25) of Bearcats’ forward Randy MacNeil – a heart and soul player for the national champions.
Bearcats forward Dwight Lucas, an all-star forward for the tournament after finishing tied for most points, also mentioned McNeil in his thoughts about the reunion.
“The importance of this reunion is seeing the team again and the teammates we went into battle with … great men,” Lucas said. “But time is not always our friend, and I would like to say I am very sad for the passing of our Bearcat teammate Randy ‘Neely’ MacNeill. We will celebrate this reunion with you in our hearts.”
The two players spent a number of years in the TSN Bearcats uniform as well as the Truro-Shubie Colonels uniform – the previous team before new ownership and rebranding. They were junior teammates as well with the powerful Cole Harbour Scotia Colts, and both talked about their greatest memory from the Allan Cup championship.
“My memories are vast, but Barry and I had played together since junior with the Colts and he encouraged me to come to the Truro in 1989,” Lucas said. “The organization went through name changes and many players over the years, but the Truro fans came back, year-after-year, game-after-game. The way our fans supported us and cheered their butts off was a great memory and that we won the Allan Cup in front of our home crowd.
“Our game time routine never wavered. I was the last out of the dressing room and Barry was at the dressing room door; we high-fived and went down the corridor with Barry being last on the ice. That game was the last time we did that in a competitive game. Proud but sad, at the same time.
“My last memory would be having my dad and my kids at the game,” Lucas added.
“Rewarding” was the word that came to Harrietha.
“After playing 11 years and in three previous Allan Cups and coming up short. Then all the miles driving the Maritimes to compete at that level, sharing that moment with the long-serving players on the team, having my family in attendance and knowing the history around the Allan Cup, to finally win it was so rewarding,” Harrietha said.
Former Cole Harbour junior standout Dwight Lucas was a star for the Truro senior team for several years and was named an all-star at the 1998 Allan Cup after tying for the point lead in the event. He is pictured as the Bearcats represented Canada at an international tournament in Tilburg, The Netherlands during the 1994-95 season. Contributed - Contributed
Poster promoting the Allan Cup 25th anniversary reunion night this Friday (March 10) at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre just prior to the Truro Jr. A Bearcats last regular season home-game versus the Amherst Ramblers. - Contributed
www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/communities/1998-senior-tsn-bearcats-to-celebrate-allan-cup-titles-silver-anniversary-100830494/
1998 senior TSN Bearcats to celebrate Allan Cup title’s silver anniversary
National champions reuniting at RECC March 10
Richard MacKenzie · Journalist | Posted: March 4, 2023, 12:16 a.m. | Updated: March 4, 2023, 7:20 p.m.
TRURO, N.S. — In 1998; Google was founded, U.S. President Bill Clinton denied having ‘sexual relations’ with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Saving Private Ryan was big at the box office, E.R. was tops on the small screen and everybody was reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
And the Truro TSN Senior AAA Bearcats team fulfilled a multi-year mission on April 11, 1998, by capturing the national Allan Cup championship and they did so on home-ice at the Colchester Legion Stadium, where not only every seat was filled — standing spaces, no matter how congested, were as well.
The Bearcats, coming off unsuccessful tournaments in Stony Plain, Alta., Unity, Sask., and Powell River, B.C. the three previous seasons, and knowing the team would most likely be disbanded following the event as owner Stu Rath was also in his first season with the revived Jr. A Bearcats program, played with a determination and ‘will to win’ as big as Colchester County itself.
After scoring a 5-1 victory to open the four-team tournament over the defending champion Powell River Regals, the Bearcats and Ile-des-Chênes North Stars from Manitoba played to a spirited 1-1 tie. In their final round-robin game, the Bearcats punched their ticket to the final by defeating the London (Ont.) Admirals 5-3, and it would be the Admirals they would meet in the final where they won, convincingly, 6-1.
The Bearcats exploded out of the gates to take a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period on goals by defencemen Darren Welsh (a tournament all-star) and Barry Harrietha, as well as hometown player Sandy MacKenzie who scored shorthanded.
Truro's stalwart captain Brain Melanson would exchange goals with London’s J.J. Wrobel in the second, before MacKenzie would score again in the third, along with Bearcats’ hard-nosed forward Jason DeCoste, to more than seal the victory and deliver to Truro the national title.
Truro goaltender Jason White, solid throughout the event, was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
The Truro Daily News extensive coverage of the senior Bearcats’ historic win – only the second Allan Cup championship for Nova Scotia after the 1935 Halifax Wolverines. It remains so to this day. Contributed - Contributed
25 years ago
That victory came 25-years-ago and to help recognize the silver anniversary, members of the TSN Bearcats, as well as the historic and prestigious trophy they won that night, will be at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre (RECC) this Friday, March 10, for a pre-game ceremony, just before the junior Bearcats finish off their home-ice regular season schedule by taking on the Amherst Ramblers.
Puck drop for the game is 7 p.m.
The ceremony will include a video tribute to the team which entered the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame in 2014 as only the second Allan Cup champions from the province. The first, the Halifax Wolverines, came all the way back in 1935.
Team members available to return for the ceremony, a vast majority is being reported, will be introduced one-by-one.
“It should be a great time,” Harrietha said about looking forward to the anniversary event.
“Time does not stay still, and I have lost some great teammates over the last few years. So to share a night with these guys to reminisce on our great achievement … it pulls on my heartstrings. We needed each other to get that job done,” he added, a nod to the recent passing (Jan. 25) of Bearcats’ forward Randy MacNeil – a heart and soul player for the national champions.
Bearcats forward Dwight Lucas, an all-star forward for the tournament after finishing tied for most points, also mentioned McNeil in his thoughts about the reunion.
“The importance of this reunion is seeing the team again and the teammates we went into battle with … great men,” Lucas said. “But time is not always our friend, and I would like to say I am very sad for the passing of our Bearcat teammate Randy ‘Neely’ MacNeill. We will celebrate this reunion with you in our hearts.”
The two players spent a number of years in the TSN Bearcats uniform as well as the Truro-Shubie Colonels uniform – the previous team before new ownership and rebranding. They were junior teammates as well with the powerful Cole Harbour Scotia Colts, and both talked about their greatest memory from the Allan Cup championship.
“My memories are vast, but Barry and I had played together since junior with the Colts and he encouraged me to come to the Truro in 1989,” Lucas said. “The organization went through name changes and many players over the years, but the Truro fans came back, year-after-year, game-after-game. The way our fans supported us and cheered their butts off was a great memory and that we won the Allan Cup in front of our home crowd.
“Our game time routine never wavered. I was the last out of the dressing room and Barry was at the dressing room door; we high-fived and went down the corridor with Barry being last on the ice. That game was the last time we did that in a competitive game. Proud but sad, at the same time.
“My last memory would be having my dad and my kids at the game,” Lucas added.
“Rewarding” was the word that came to Harrietha.
“After playing 11 years and in three previous Allan Cups and coming up short. Then all the miles driving the Maritimes to compete at that level, sharing that moment with the long-serving players on the team, having my family in attendance and knowing the history around the Allan Cup, to finally win it was so rewarding,” Harrietha said.
Former Cole Harbour junior standout Dwight Lucas was a star for the Truro senior team for several years and was named an all-star at the 1998 Allan Cup after tying for the point lead in the event. He is pictured as the Bearcats represented Canada at an international tournament in Tilburg, The Netherlands during the 1994-95 season. Contributed - Contributed
Poster promoting the Allan Cup 25th anniversary reunion night this Friday (March 10) at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre just prior to the Truro Jr. A Bearcats last regular season home-game versus the Amherst Ramblers. - Contributed