‘Damn good players’: Dundas Real McCoys win second-straight national title in front of home fans

Still, winning national titles at an age when most guys have given up even playing men’s league is something. Doing it in a hard-hitting championship game in which bodies were getting pounded into the boards, bruises were forming and blood was being spilt was something else altogether.

“The competitive juices never go away,” says the American Hockey League Hall of Famer and all-time AHL playoff scoring leader.

That was evident as his Dundas Real McCoys overwhelmed the Southern Shore Breakers from Newfoundland 6-1 on Saturday to once again claim the Canadian senior hockey championship in front of their home fans.

It was the second straight year Dundas has won the title. So when the players posed for a photo at centre ice with the big silver mug, they passed on the traditional We’re-Number-One sign for a far-rarer two-finger salute.

How much rarer?

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• Dec 31, 1969
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• Dec 31, 1969
• Comments

You have to go back three decades to find the last time a team went back-to-back in this tournament. And that was an American team granted special dispensation to enter.

To find a Canadian side that did it, you have to go all the way back to 1985 and 1986 when only five guys who were dressed for the Real McCoys on Saturday were even born.

With the win, Dundas firmly stakes its claim as the centre of the senior hockey universe. With three wins since 2014 – three of the seasons in that time were wiped out by the pandemic – they’re now a dynasty at this level.

For the guys who know their hockey history and understand how old this trophy is and how much it’s a part of the story of the game in this country, does that make winning it even better?

“It does,” says Phil Brewer, who led the tournament in scoring with six points in four games. “It really does.”

Haydar’s comments about the competitive juices never going away is what really drives this. Yeah, the guys on the ice are older and have finished their pro careers. They’re not working on climbing the mountain to earn big contracts at this point. Yet Saturday provided all kinds of evidence that turning off the switch isn’t easy.

It was great hockey. Fast, skilled and physical.

“They like to compete,” says Real McCoys’ president and general manager Don Robertson. “The building’s full, the game’s on TV, most of them have all played pro and they’ve played in front of sold-out arenas before and that adrenaline’s there.”

It’s true. So many of them said nearly the exact same thing.

Robertson is as competitive as any of his players. He loves winning. He especially loves winning championships. But this isn’t just about collecting rings.

There’s a game being played off the ice as well.

Coming out of COVID, senior hockey in this area was teetering. Teams were folding and it was starting to look like this brand of hockey might be heading toward extinction. Finding a way to save the whole thing became the priority.

It’s why he put up the dough to host this event in consecutive years. Even at the risk of taking a financial bath. Getting eyeballs on this level of hockey was going to be the sales pitch to save it.

It appears to have worked.

This year, Stoney Creek joined the league and now has strong ownership committed to keeping things going and helping grow the product.

“We’ve added a team in Richmond Hill,” Robertson says. “Alberta, I believe they’re going to add a couple teams. Newfoundland may put some teams up to AAA.”

The players say this is terrific. Men’s league is fine but it’s no match for games that count for something. Even Haydar, the tournament’s senior citizen, says there’s little that can compare with a real game that comes with real stakes.

He’s busy with life and family now. Time commitments don’t allow him to make it out all the time. When he does, it’s tough for him to keep up, he says, suggesting some guys are like rockets compared to him. And no, he doesn’t score like he once did.

But he’s still out there. Especially with the chance to sip from one of the sport’s most-historic trophy at the end of each year.

“It’s fast paced, there’s real hockey plays, some damn good players,” he says. “I love it.”