Summerside Player Helps Hounds Retain Telus Cup

Ryan MacKinnon assists on the game-winning goal in the national midget final

The Journal Pioneer and The Canadian Press

LEVIS, Que.

The Notre Dame Hounds from Saskatchewan defended their Telus Cup title, beating the Mississauga Reps 3-2 on Sunday. It’s Notre Dame’s second-straight and fourth national midget ‘AAA’ hockey championship overall, tying the Regina Pat Canadians for most titles.

Although the game took place in Quebec with teams from Saskatchewan and Ontario, there was crucial Summerside connection.
Ryan MacKinnon of Summerside is a defenceman with the Notre Dame Hounds, who assisted on the game-winning goal in Sunday’s final.

I just battled to keep the puck in at the blue-line and was fortunate enough to get the puck deep to my teammate, and it ended up in the back of the net, said MacKinnon.

Liam O’Brien scored this go-ahead goal eight minutes into the third period. His goal came just under three minutes after Erick Locke scored his second of the game for Mississauga to tie the game.

Marcus Messier gave the Hounds a 2-1 lead earlier in the third period, when his power-play marker beat Reps goalie Malcolm Subban. Despite the loss, Subban delivered a 55-save effort. Locke opened the scoring midway through the first period with a power-play goal, but tournament MVP Slater Koekkoek tied it up at 3:57 of the second. Riley Parker made 23 saves in net for the Hounds.

Winning the Telus Cup was amazing and it is something I will always remember, noted Ryan.
This is his second year with the Hounds, as he played last year as a bantam ‘AAA’ Hound.
Winning the Telus Cup completes a tough hockey season.

It is a season that our whole team faced a lot of adversity, noted Ryan. Early in the season our school was hit by a H1N1 breakout in which some of my teammates became very ill. We battled all season and were able to finish third in our league.

We went into the playoffs with a healthy lineup for one of the few times all year.

After playing three league playoff series in Saskatchewan, the Hounds represented their league at the Western Regionals in Morden, Man., and from there advanced to the Telus Cup in Levis, Que.
Ryan was looking forward to this moment for over a year.

Last season his school was bused to Selkirk to attend the final game of the Telus Cup.

To witness that excitement of the Hounds winning from the stands last year was something I thought about a lot over last summer, and it really gave me a lot of inspiration to make the Hounds as a first-year player this year.

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