Annual Vince Ryan Memorial Hockey Tournament gets underway in Cape Breton
Annual Vince Ryan Memorial Hockey Tournament gets underway in Cape Breton
The puck drops Thursday night for the start of the Vince Ryan Memorial Hockey Tournament - one of the most well-known recreational hockey tournaments in Canada.
Earlier in the day, the "Friday Slashers," a team competing in the tournament’s A Division, hit the ice at the Membertou Sport and Wellness Centre in Membertou, N.S., for some last-minute practice.
Team member Ben McLavish has been living in Cape Breton for about six months now after moving there from Calgary.
This will be his first Vince Ryan tournament. He says it's bigger than any tournament he's taken part in back home.
"We've got nothing like that out west, especially for rec league hockey. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it," McLavish said.
Three years ago, "the Vincey," as it’s known by many, was one of the very first events in the Maritimes cancelled by the pandemic.
The Cape Breton Regional Municipality facilities manager, Paul MacDonald, who manages several of the rinks that will host Vince Ryan games, said it’s a boost to have the buildings full of bookings for games.
"It's bringing in a lot of folks from out of town, filling up hotel rooms and restaurants and all that wonderful stuff. It's great to have them back," MacDonald said.
But this time, there's another hurdle to overcome in the form of the weather forecast for overnight Thursday into Friday.
"Well, isn't that the funny piece? I don't know if it's funny. Ironic, probably," MacDonald said. “We're starting the tournament, and we're getting a large snowstorm in the area. It's always something, but it's been my experience that they always find a way of overcoming these challenges."
The weekend is also the first big one of the year for hotels.
The tournament typically contributes about $5 million a year into the local economy.
The Vince Ryan also raises thousands of dollars each year in local scholarships.
Donald Trump said Thursday that he has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, igniting a federal prosecution that is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former U.S. president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the appeal of an Alberta woman who was unwilling to be vaccinated in order to get a life-saving organ transplant.
What happens to the brain when you take gravity away? According to a new study looking at astronauts both before and after space travel, that experience causes physical changes that researchers believe requires at least three years between longer missions to recover from.
As wildfires rage across Canada in what’s being called an unprecedented season, one expert says there’s more that individuals and communities can do to adapt and prevent forest fires from causing widespread devastation.
Rescuers in Washington state are praising the resourcefulness of a 10-year-old girl who survived on her own for more than 24 hours in the rugged terrain of the Cascade mountains after getting lost while out with her family.
Air pollution from wildfires remained well above healthy levels across much of southern and northern Ontario and several communities in British Columbia and Alberta on Thursday.
Video has surfaced showing a Mississauga, Ont. transit bus plowing into stopped traffic in a crash that left one person dead and at least eight injured on Thursday morning.
Quebec's precarious wildfire situation is expected to remain stable over the next 48 hours but residents displaced by the raging forest fires likely won't be able to return home until early next week, Premier Francois Legault said Thursday.
An Ontario man charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the death of Claudia Iacono, the daughter-in-law of the late Montreal Mafia associate Moreno Gallo, was arrested the day after the killing in Ontario on unrelated drug charges, public records show.
Donald Trump said Thursday that he has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, igniting a federal prosecution that is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former U.S. president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
Premier Danielle Smith says the government is bringing in arson investigators from outside the province to trace the cause of some wildfires during an unprecedented season in Alberta.
A $100 million class action lawsuit launched on behalf of alleged victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy on Manitoulin Island has been abandoned after the victims reached individual settlements with the church.
Donald Trump said Thursday that he has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, igniting a federal prosecution that is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former U.S. president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
In the summer of 2022, London, Ont. barber and business owner Eddie Lopez suffered a brain aneurysm, heart attack, stroke, and seizure. He remains in hospital to this day.
Two years after two statues were knocked down and damaged at the Manitoba Legislature, one is now back up and Indigenous leaders are upset by the decision.
As interest rates continue to rise, the cost of buying a house in Ottawa and across Canada is becoming more expensive. Many homeowners are now forced to extend their mortgage payments.
A man who killed his ex-wife’s cousin will spend life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years, a judge decided on Thursday at Saskatoon’s Court of King’s Bench.
Tumbler Ridge, a community with a population of 2,400 in northeastern B.C., has been ordered to evacuate Thursday due to the danger posed by an encroaching wildfire.
More than 70 guests have RSVP'd for a Squamish couple's beach wedding in Tofino, but the wildfire-related closure of Highway 4 has upended their plans.
Regina's mayor says the city's fire department had growing concerns about the health, safety and well-being of those living in a homeless camp that was dismantled on Wednesday morning.
The mayor of Port Alberni says she does not expect the highway to reopen for several days at least, and she is asking the province to open more forestry roads to truck in much-needed supplies to communities west of the wildfire.
