The CBR Renegades, coming off that big win in the Mary Brown’s St. John’s Junior Hockey League final earlier this month, will be looking to add another crown to their list of 2019 accomplishments with the Don Johnson Cup Atlantic junior B championship that opened Wednesday in Kensington, P.E.I.
The Renegades are one of five teams in the tournament, joining the host Vipers, Western Red Wings of P.E.I., Sackville Blazers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick’s Moncton Junior Vitos.
The tournament opened Tuesday, and CBR has two games today – 12:30 p.m. (NL time) against the Blazers followed by an 8:30 game tonight (NL time) against Kensington.
The Renegades play the Red Wings 4:30 Thursday afternoon and the Vitos 12:30 p.m. Friday. Semifinals are Saturday and the gold medal game is Sunday.
Last year’s Newfoundland and Labrador representative, the Mount Pearl Blades, reached the Don Johnson Cup championship game, but were beaten 4-1 by the Kameron Junior Miners from Nova Scotia.
The Renegades beat the Blades in this year’s St. John’s junior final in a seven-game series that went to double overtime in the deciding game.
The Atlantic junior B championship is named after Nova Scotia native, and long-time St., John’s resident Don Johnson, a Newfoundland and Labrador hockey and sports Hall of Famer. Johnson was a former president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association and Newfoundland Amateur Hockey Association.
This province last won the Don Johnson Cup back in 2009, when the St. John’s Caps turned the trick. Before that, you’d have to go all the way back to the mid-1980s when Newfoundland and Labrador teams won four straight championships starting in 1985, three by the Junior 50s and one by Mount Pearl.
