ALLAN CUP HOCKEY NEWS

By Larry Robertson; Photos by Rick Zazulak

DUNDAS--when you're hot, you're hot, and when you're not, well…

The Dundas Real McCoys are hot and riding a three-game winning streak in Major League Hockey these days following their back-to-back wins over the Brantford Blast (7-3) last Friday at Brantford and two days later against the Orillia Tundra (5-4) at Orillia.  Their streak started on December 19 with a 6-4 win over the Norwood Vipers at Norwood, and has vaulted them into second place.

The club's success is due in large part of the play of TJ Sakaluk, who leads the league in scoring with 30 points with 15 across the board (15 games, 15 goals, and 15 assists) as he connected for four goals and an assist on the weekend.  Teammates Shawn Shewchuk and Brad Kenny hold down the fifth and sixth spots in League scoring.

Shewchuk set up seven scoring plays on the weekend and has seven goals and 19 assists in 15 games for 26 points.  Kenny bagged two goals and set up three more for 25 points (12-13) in 14 matches.

Friday night (January 14), everyone will know just how good the club is as they take on the Norwood Vipers in "Kraft Hockeyville Night" in the JL Grightmire Arena.  Game time is set for 7:45 p.m.

That night, the McCoys will say a special thank you to Leslie Watson and Barry Forth, the Co-Chairs of the "Gotta Be Dundas" Kraft Hockeyville Committee that began and completed Dundas’ quest to be Kraft Hockeyville 2010.

Selected from the more than 12,500 submissions, the community of fewer than 25,000 people located northwest of Hamilton received a National Hockey League pre-season game between the Ottawa Senators and the Buffalo Sabres plus $100,000 in arena upgrades and a visit from Hockey Night in Canada.

The "Gotta Be Dundas" volunteers will be the guests of the Real McCoys and Com/Choice Realty, and Forth and Watson will be the recipients of a gift from the community.

The same night, the local folks will get a chance to see the McCoys re-jigged line up featuring two new faces and three not so new faces.

The new faces include defenceman Allan Rourke and goalkeeper Jeff Maund.

Rourke was a sixth-round Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft.  He has played 55 NHL games for Carolina Hurricanes, New York Islanders, and the Edmonton Oilers.  He scored once, had four assists, and had a +4 plus-minus rating.  In eight American Hockey League seasons, he played 458 games, scored 52 goals, and had 113 assists.  He had a -3 rating.

Maund played two seasons in the American Hockey League with the Norfolk Admirals (2000-01) and the Providence Bruins (2001-02).  That was followed by six seasons in Europe with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in Russia, Ritten-Renon [SV] in Italy, Vienna Capitals in Austria, Ingolstadt [ERC] in Germany, Riga 2000 [HK] in Belarus, and finally the last three season of his European career (2006-2009) with Cortina [SG] in Italy.

Coming back for one more kick at the cat, will be 2009-10 Allstar forward Ryan Christie former Dallas Star and Calgary Flame, Jerry Galway, 2009-10 Second Team MLH Allstar with the McCoys.  He previously played in the East Coast Hockey League with Atlantic City, and in the Central Hockey League with Lubbock, Cotton Kings in Texas before heading to Europe for four seasons.  He played the past two seasons with the McCoys.

Also returning is Mike Kennedy who was drafted 97th overall by the Minnesota North Stars in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft.  He played 152 career NHL games scoring 16 goals and 36 assists for 52 points with Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the New York Islanders.  From 1999 to 2005, he played in the DEL in Germany.  In 2000, he helped the Munich Barons win the championship.  He played from 2005-06 through 2009-10 with the McCoys.

“I would hope that additions like this will help us in our goal to repeat as Robertson Cup champions (or at least a home game or two).  We are adding three former NHLers to the line-up a MLH allstar on defence and a top notch former AHL goalie," said General Manager Don Robertson.

“Maund played last Friday night, and he may have been the difference in winning and losing as our goalie out played theirs (Brett Leggat).  Maunder comes with high standards in the AHL and in the Elite League in Italy, and he brings experience.  He will replace Dan Turple, who is now at Police College in Aylmer, and we couldn’t be happier for him (Turple) because he has worked to join the Hamilton Police Service for some time.  Dan is just a great human and we know he’ll join us again as time permits," added Robertson.

“We are excited about the last nine games of the schedule, six of which are at home.  We think we can make this club as good as any that we have had in the past, and with some luck the club will take us where we want to go, and make all of 'Hockeyville' proud of us.“

Last Friday at Brantford, Sakaluk scored three times with Kenny adding a pair.  Matt Smith and Galway added one each as Maund turned in a sterling performance.  Brantford outshot The McCoys 41-36, but could only beat him three times.  Two nights later (Sunday) at Orillia, Sakaluk netted two more goals with Cam Watson, Scott Charbonneau, and Paul Lawson adding one each.  Both teams fired 52 shots at each other.  Shewchuk set up four of the goals.