WESTVILLE – For the past two seasons Luke Swanwick and the Northumberland Nighthawks boys hockey team have suffered disappointment in their home tournament final. This season Swanwick and the seven other seniors on the team hope to change that.
This weekend in the seventh Annual Danny Dorrington Memorial Hockey Tournament, being played at the Westville Miners Sports Centre, will be the test as to whether they can turn their fate around. Losing 2-1 in double-overtime to NNEC last year Swanwick said it was a tough loss, and with a large number of Grade 12s on the team this year they really want to win the tournament before graduating.
“It’s different for me and a number of the guys knowing it’s our last year and we won’t have another chance to win this,” said Swanwick. “We want to win it for the school to have the banner before we go. I think this year we have the team for it.
“You always want to represent your school well and this is the opportunity for us to do that.”
Although this isn’t the only tournament the team has played in, as tournaments are fairly regular for high school teams, Swanwick said being at home also makes a big difference for the team.
“Basically if you know you have time between games you get to go home, have a good meal and rest between games,” he said. “You don’t get that opportunity when you’re away so it’s nice to have that. You also get to sleep in your own bed, are better rested and have lots of fans at the games from the school.”
This week the team had a pair of practices Monday and Wednesday. He said using the practices in preparation for the three-day push was crucial.
“We needed to work hard to get ready for the three days and know what our expectations were going into the weekend, which is to win it,” he said. “We’re going to focus on each game as it comes, but if we want to win this year we need to have our minds in it and know the effort and focus needs to be there if we want to take that step from second to first.”
Tournament Schedule:
Friday, Jan. 11
9:00 a.m. North Nova vs. Dartmouth
10:45 a.m. Northumberland vs. J.L. Ilsley
12:30 p.m. King’s-Edgehill vs. SAERC
2:15 p.m. Par-En-Bas vs. Dalbrae
4:00 p.m. Dartmouth vs. King’s-Edgehill
5:45 p.m. SAERC vs. North Nova
7:30 p.m. Opening Ceremonies
7:45 p.m. Dalbrae vs. Northumberland
9:30 p.m. J. L. Ilsley vs. Par-En-Bas
Saturday, Jan. 12
10:00 a.m. King’s-Edgehill vs. North Nova
11:45 a.m. J.L. Ilsley vs. Dalbrae
1:30 p.m. Par-En-Bas vs. Northumberland
3:15 p.m. Dartmouth vs. SAERC
6:15 p.m. 2nd place Div. A vs. 1st place Div. B
8:00 p.m. 2nd place Div. B vs. 1st place Div. A
Sunday, Jan. 13
1:15 p.m. championship game
*All games being played at Westville Miners Sports Centre
Division A Division B
Northumberland North Nova
J.L. Ilsley King’s-Edgehill
Par-En-Bas Dartmouth
Dalbrae SAERC
