Catalyst Street Hockey held its seventh annual New England Classic, presented by BAUER Hockey, Inc., at the Fitchburg Street Hockey rinks June 2-4. The event, the first adult tournament held at the Fitchburg Street Hockey rinks since they were renovated, was a great success for both organizations.

Street hockey

The event started seven years ago at Fitchburg State’s Wallace Civic Center and Landry Arena. Over the past few years the event was brought to Leominster Dek Hockey, but an uptick in interest, and a desire to return to where the event originated, pushed Catalyst to look back to Fitchburg as a potential permanent home.

“Scott (Duggan) and I grew up playing in Fitchburg, both house and travel, so to have the opportunity to come home, it was just a perfect fit,” said Anthony Cornacchia, president of Catalyst Street Hockey. “The reality is that the work done by Tom MacMaster and the volunteers has allowed for an event the size of ours to take place at the rinks. The new Mateflex dek surfaces, the addition of a new third rink and the replacement of the old wood boards are just some of the improvements that drew us back to the venue.”

The event drew 35 teams from all across the region and consisted of four divisions: C, Novice, Co-Ed and Women’s B.

The Women’s B Division was the tightest of all four divisions all weekend, with close games taking place all over the weekend.

The Fitchburg Goal Diggers, playing in just their second tournament, showed huge improvement from their previous event. In the semifinals the Western Mass. Whalers defeated the Red Foxes 2-1 and Nor’Easter defeated the Wicked Angels 2-0. In the final, it was the Whalers who came out on top with a 2-1 victory over the Nor’Easter to take him the title. Tournament honors were awarded to Emily Windward, Jinelle Croteau, Kristie Kehoe, Stephanie Dugan, Melanie Dodge, Alexis Hill and MVP Kayla Thorpe.

In the C Division, a team known to many in the street hockey community, the Rhode Island Rage, captured their first major tournament title in a 5-3 victory over the Western Mass. Whalers. The Whalers, led by all-tournament team members Geoff Billingham and Camden Mallette, had been on an impressive run before running out of gas in the final. The Whalers won in overtime 5-4 over the Boston Braves in the semifinals. Rhode Island was led by their captain and tournament MVP Dave Goodnow, as well as All-Tournament Team members Dom Thebeau and Derek Chaves.

In the Novice Division, the Rhode Island Pylons captured the title, defeating the hometown FSHL Top Shelf 2-1 in overtime in a physical contest. Top Shelf was on a run of its own on Sunday, winning in overtime against the Western Mass. Wildcats in the semifinals. Tournament honors in the division went to Phil Loranger, Bill Gardynski, Chris Snowden, Tommy Leblanc, David Parquette and Chris Castro.

Finally in Co-Ed, D & B’s defeated Kings and Queens to take home the title. In Co-Ed men and women are on the rink at the same time. The Co-Ed field was deep and talented this year with nine participating teams, but D & B’s accumulated the most points in Round Robin and ran the table for their firstNew England Classic championship. Tournament honors went to Lisa Kilroy, Katie Newton, Madelyn Evangelous, Stephanie Payette, Steve Manukian, Eddy Botelho and

Dave Goodnow.

Listening to feedback and constantly improving are pillars of growing a tournament in the street hockey community.

“It all starts with the participants,” said Cornacchia, “You are never going to make everyone happy, you just aren’t. However, I’d like to think if nothing else we have done a good job over

the years of listening to the wants and needs of the ladies and men who play our sport. While not perfect, I’d like to think we continue to improve on many of the small details that show to those dedicated to the sport.”

Said FSHL President Tom MacMaster, “Over the past five years FSHL has spent over $250,000 on upkeep, building a third rink, and installing a modular playing surface (aka decking) from Mateflex in 2016 after forty-plus years of playing on asphalt. These volunteer efforts have expanded our youth program and allowed the development of a men’s and women’s divisions.

When Catalyst approached us to host their New England Classic we felt the partnership fit our vision of not only helping FSHL raise funds for future projects and help us keep a low registration cost to our youth league, but they also have the same vision as our board in making FSHL the prime destination for dek hockey in Massachusetts. FSHL is still on the rise asevidence with our own youth tournament, the Raider Cup, held at the end of this month with 25 entries — our largest in its short four-year history. As a 501(c)3, FSHL has come a long way in a short time and we feel this new relationship with Catalyst will do nothing less than make us even more successful.”
Cornacchia believes the event could be just the beginning for the relationship between Catalyst and Fitchburg Street Hockey League.

“Our motto has been ‘Grow the Game,’ and the fact is Fitchburg Street Hockey is doing a great job, through their volunteers, of pushing the sport as an affordable, competitive and fun opportunity for members of the community to take part in. We want to be a part of that for years to come and we expect this is the first of many collaborations between the two of us. There are already plans for bringing similar events to the rink and community.”