Electric City Football Club Launches Reserve Teams Partnership With FC Durham

The Electric City Football Club (ECFC) has launched their League 1 Ontario men’s and women’s 2023 reserve teams, in partnership with FC Durham Academy announced on Thursday.

File photo.

Durham and ECFC are eager to further invest in the affiliation formed during ECFC’s inaugural 2022 season and continue cultivating high-quality opportunities for players in the East region according to a press release.

Amongst this past season’s FC Durham Academy talent, were Caylan Lawrence and Rylee Traicoff, both scoring goals for ECFC’s Men’s and Women’s Teams respectively.

FC Durham Academy co-owners Tom Croft and Rich Hirst are bringing a combined 70 years of coaching experience.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with ECFC in 2023,” said Croft. “This will allow FC Durham to enhance our role in the High-Performance Pathway in Ontario, providing consistent challenges and opportunity for our players in our Post-Formation Phase U17 and older.”

Nick Kassermelli and Hirst are head coaches with the ECFC League 1 Men U21 and Women’s Reserve Teams respectively. Hirst will also assume the role of Assistant Coach with the ECFC League 1 Women’s Premier Team.

“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with FC Durham for the 2023 season. FC Durham is a constant in developing youth players that we have seen move onto post-secondary institutions and to even higher levels year after year,” said Randy Riberio, ECFC head coach. “We were very pleased with the quality of players that we were able to bring into first team training last season and even had some standout performances in quite a few L1 Premier matches on both our Men’s and Women’s teams in 2022. We look forward to fielding ECFC’s first ever Reserve Men’s and Women’s teams in partnership with FC Durham next season.”

ECFC is hosting their Men’s Open Tryouts on Monday at Wet ‘n’ Wild Dome in Brampton. Further details about women’s tryouts will be announced.

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Peterborough Petes Celebrating Local Hockey Moms For 14th Annual Pink In The Rink Campaign

The Peterborough Petes 14th-annual Pink in the Rink game celebrates and honours hockey moms afflicted by cancer and will be played on Feb. 4 against the Oshawa Generals announced at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) on Wednesday.

Members of PRHC and the Peterborough Petes players and staff outside the PRHC on a rainy morning. Last year raised $76,952.18 for the Canadian Cancer Society. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The goal for this year’s campaign is $50,000. Proceeds go toward cancer care at (PRHC). Lesley Heighway, PRHC Foundation president and CEO says that with cancer volumes on the rise, donors are essential to the hospital’s ability to serve more patients, support earlier diagnosis and ensure safer, more effective treatments, close to home.

“The number of patients from Peterborough and the surrounding area who rely on PRHC to support their cancer journey continues to climb,” she said. “It’s events like Pink in the Rink and organizations like the Peterborough Petes – along with the people and businesses who support them –  that fund the tools our experts need to save and improve lives.”

Leading up to the game, the Petes are accepting nominations of local hockey moms to be honoured leading up to and during the game. 

This is a spin on prior years as annual chairs were selected to spearhead the campaign.

“With the honourary chair model that we used to use, it would be a little bit burdensome on those people,” said Burton Lee, Petes executive director of business operations. “They had lives, they were trying to manage day-to-day, probably still dealing with their cancer journey and on top of that, we were saying 'raise a bunch of money for us, would you?'“

The Petes are accepting orders to purchase a name (up to 200) to be printed on one of their Pink in the Rink game-worn jersey for $20. The Petes will unveil a special jersey with the purchased names at a future date.

Fans can also buy a special edition custom Pink in the Rink t-shirt with any name on the back and donate tickets to cancer survivors or volunteers to attend the game. A live auction will take place after the game to bid on game-worn jerseys.

The Pets have raised $900,000 over the past 13 years as they are closing in on their $1 million milestone. 

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Peterborough Petes Cough Up Four Unanswered Goals In 6-4 Loss to Sudbury Wolves

The Peterborough Petes allowed four unanswered goals from the Sudbury Wolves resulting in a 6-4 loss on Diabetes Night at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on Thursday.

Photo courtesy of Kenneth Andersen Photography and the Peterborough Petes.

Petes’ Tommy Purdeller wasted no time and scored four minutes into the game. The lead lasted for nine seconds as Evan Konyen scored his fifth goal of the season to tie the game at one. Sahil Panwar made it 2-1 to give Peterborough the lead into the second.

David Goyette tied the game up for Sudbury four minutes into the second. Three minutes later, Purdeller scored his second of the game for a 3-2 Petes lead. Connor Lockhart extended the lead and gave Peterborough an insurance goal to make it 4-2. The Wolves quickly countered 31 seconds later to cut into the lead 4-3 with a Nick DeGrazia goal heading into the third.

Konyen scored again, 3:58 into the period to tie the game at 4-4. He scored again, netting the hat trick, giving Sudbury their first lead of the game. Alex Pharand gave the Wolves an insurance goal two minutes later and never looked back for the 6-4 win.

Diabetes Night was a personal initiative brought forth by Petes’ goaltender Michael Simpson (where you can donate online) who has had Type-1 diabetes since he was three. The Petes in partnership with Tandem Diabetes Care raised $7,869 on the night to send local children to Diabetes Canada D-Camps.

The Petes will travel to Oshawa Friday night to take on the rival Generals for the second time in two weeks.

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Curve Lake's Sierra Jacobs Selected to 2022 Wickenheiser Female World Hockey Festival

Curve Lake’s Sierra Jacobs is headed to Calgary for the 2022 Wickenheiser Female World Hockey Festival, representing team ‘Little NHL’ in the U15 platinum division.

Photo courtesy of the Peterborough Ice Kats.

Jacobs’s team is comprised of all First Nation female hockey players in a four-day tournament.

She is also a member of the PGHA GP Wealth Management U15 Peterborough IceKats. Her teammate Cece-Lyn Beaulne of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation is also joining her as part of the Little NHL team.

The team’s schedule is as follows:

• Friday vs Surrey Falcons at 11:45 a.m.

• Friday vs San Jose Jr. Sharks at 7 p.m.

• Saturday vs. Winnipeg Titans at 5:30 p.m.

• Sunday vs. North Central Impact at 10 a.m.

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Peterborough Tigers U13 To Receive Several Honours At Awards Ceremony In Trenton

The Peterborough Baseball Association’s U13 Tigers are being recognized for several awards at the Eastern Ontario Baseball Association (EOBA) Annual General Meeting at the Ramada Inn in Trenton on Saturday.

Photo courtesy of Peterborough Tigers.

The U13 Tigers became the first PBA team to earn a berth in the Baseball Canada National Championships in August.

The Tigers are being recognized as 2022 Team of the Year.

Two individual awards are being handed out to the team as Brett Crowley will be named EOBA pitcher of the year and Blake Bowers as the EOBA representative player of the year.

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Peterborough Petes' Michael Simpson Named OHL Goaltender of the Week

Peterborough Petes’ Michael Simpson is named OHL Goaltender of the Week after posting a 2-0 record last week including his second shutout of the season announced on Monday.

File photo.

Simpson posted a 1.50 goals against average (GAA) and a 0.950 save percentage (SV%) during that span.

The London product earned a 4-0 shutout win over the rival Oshawa Generals with 26 saves on Thursday night. He won on back-to-back nights, stopping 31 of 24 shots in a 7-3 win over the Mississauga Steelheads.

“It’s an honour,” said Simpson. “Lots of goalies had good weekends so to be noticed for the award is definitely awesome. The team made my job easy this weekend.”

This is Simpson’s second time earning the honour and last had it during the week of Nov. 1. Simpson currently leads the league in GAA (2.28), SV% (.925), and shutouts (two) in 16 games.

Simpson has spearheaded Diabetes Night this Thursday against the Sudbury Wolves at the Peterborough Memorial Centre. The night is to raise awareness and money in support of Diabetes Canada.

Fans are encouraged to wear blue on game night — as it’s the official colour of Diabetes Month — where the arena will be lit in the same colour in honour of the cause.

The goaltender was diagnosed with Type-1 Diabetes when he was three years old.

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Three Electric City Football Club Players Named As League-1 Ontario All-Stars

It was an excellent first year for Electric City Football Club’s (ECFC) Mykaela Volpe, Zach Ellis-Hayden and Quillian Roberts as they were named League1 Ontario 2022 All-Stars announced on Friday.

Photo courtesy of Electric City Football Club and David Pickering.

Volpe was named second-team all-star as she played 14 games as ECFC’s goalkeeper allowing 16 goals with a 1.14 goals against average that included five shutouts.

She also was runner-up to League1 Ontario’s Goalkeeper of the Year to FC London’s Jadyn Steinhauer.

In 2021, The Kitchener-born goalkeeper had an 8-0-1 record with nine shutouts allowing only one goal to Western University on a penalty kick.

Photo courtesy of Electric City Football Club and David Pickering.

ECFC defender Zach Ellis-Hayden earned third-team all-star honours logging three assists in 16 games.

Ellis-Hayden was one of ECFC’s inaugural signings back on Feb. 10 alongside Sona Makulova. The Kitchener-born defender spent the last six seasons playing professionally in the USL Championship prior to ECFC.

Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Roberts as his teammate Ellis-Hayden earned third-team all-star honours playing 17 games, allowing 19 goals and seven shutouts for the season.

He was named a runner-up for League1 Ontario’s men’s Goalkeeper of the Year, losing out to Praveen Ahilan of Alliance United. Ali Ghazanfari-Moghaddan of the North Toronto Nitros was also named as a runner-up.

Just like being ECFC’s first goalkeeper signing, Roberts was one of the first in Hamilton’s Forge FC’s history. Roberts had eight Canadian Premier League starts with nine goals against and four shutouts.

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Peterborough Petes Shine Against Rival Oshawa Generals In 4-0 Win; Othmann Scores In Home Debut

Special Olympics night proved to be special for the Peterborough Petes as they dominated their rival Oshawa Generals in a 4-0 win at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on Thursday night.

Brennan Othmann (pictured) after scoring his first goal as a Pete during a two-man advantage powerplay. Othmann was traded to the Petes last Saturday. Photo courtesy of the Peterborough Petes.

The Petes asserted their dominance early in the first as Petes’ Connor Lockhart snapped a quick shot past Generals goalie Patrick Leaver in the high slot for a 1-0 lead. Six minutes later, J.R. Avon would score a highlight reel goal on a turnaround bid to extend the lead to 2-0. Jack Van Volsen got in on the action a minute later just shooting the puck on net and ricocheting off a Generals’ stick for a 3-0 lead.

In the second period, the Petes allowed a two-on-nothing breakaway at the tail end of their powerplay but goalie Michael Simpson shut the door on a Matthew Buckley shot. Newly-acquired Brennan Othmann dazzled the Peterborough crowd with a beautiful move off a give-and-go and extended the Petes’ lead 4-0 from a two-man advantage powerplay goal.

Oshawa came out firing in the third period, registering 13 shots on Simpson, the most of any period this game. Simpson stood tall, stopping all 13 including fighting off a Generals two-man advantage powerplay.

The Petes travel to Mississauga to play the Steelheads on Friday night tomorrow night.

Approximately $3,000 was raised on the night in support of the Law Enforcement Torch Run and Special Olympics Ontario.

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Hometown PTBO: The Capital PTBO Owner Mark Million Showcasing Peterborough's Deep and Hidden Sports History

This week on Hometown PTBO, Pete Dalliday talks to The Capital PTBO owner Mark Million about hidden sports history within Peterborough such as The Penalty Pub, PCCHL Nationals, Joe Louis and more.

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Newly-Acquired Brennan Othmann Bringing Firepower to the Peterborough Petes

In a trade that sent Artem Guryev and three draft picks to the Flint Firebirds on Saturday, newly-acquired forward and New York Rangers prospect Brennan Othmann arrives in Peterborough for the first time as a Pete. He will make his home debut against the Oshawa Generals on Thursday night.

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