Ontario Selects Win the Allied Cup

By Eli Shupak

From rags to riches . . . That’s how far the Canadian Electric Wheelchair Hockey Association (CEWHA) has come in its 14 years of existence. The CEWHA held its second annual National Tournament on Victoria Day weekend between the Ontario Selects and Team Calgary.

Created by CEWHA President Robb Carmichael 14 years ago, the league allows athletes with limited upper body strength or a mobility impairment to participate in their own version of the National Hockey League. It gives these athletes an opportunity to actively compete in a team sport. No other sport can involve so many athletes with limited upper body strength as does electric wheelchair hockey.

The games, held at York University and Humber College in Toronto, were very competitive and tightly contested throughout. The Ontario Selects prevailed 5 to 1 in the finale, taking the tournament for the second year in a row, four games to one.

The teams got acquainted on the Friday morning with a trip to Niagara Falls in the Metro Toronto Ambulance disaster buses. The athletes had the opportunity to mingle just hours before they were to play the first game of the tournament. They also had a chance to spend time together that Sunday when they watched one of the Blue Jays’ nail-biting victories at Toronto’s beautiful SkyDome.

Saturday’s games provided some of the most entertaining and gruelling electric wheelchair hockey action one possibly could see. The winner of Game One was awarded one point and the value of each game increased by a point as the tournament wore on. This allowed a team to lose the first three games but still win the tournament by prevailing in the final two games. This could have been the case -- Calgary lost the first three, won Game Four but was soundly defeated in Game Five.

On Sunday, the league took a giant step forward as it joined the Hockey Hall of Fame. Its national championship trophy, the Allied Cup, will be on permanent display alongside many of Canada’s other major national championship trophies -- including the Memorial Cup -- in hockey’s new shrine. The ball and stick of Mike Lavalle, the league’s first 50-goal scorer and Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, will also be on display.

The annual awards banquet at the Delta Chelsea Hotel capped off the weekend. Larry Miller of Calgary took MVP honours, while Sandor Kezes of Ontario was named the Most Sportspersonlike Player.

Next year’s tournament will also involve London, a new addition to the league. The league hopes to continue expanding until the CEWHA brings electric wheelchair hockey to every major city across Canada.

Special thanks go out to the Investors Group of Toronto and Calgary as well as Metro Toronto Ambulance because without their sponsorship, the tournament would not have been possible.

(Eli Shupak is a journalism student and plays in the Canadian Electric Wheelchair Hockey Association.)