The Kensington Moase Plumbing and Heating Vipers know the drill.
The Vipers, who have won 13 provincial championships, begin play in their 15th Don Johnson Memorial Cup tournament, which will crown Atlantic Canada’s junior B hockey champion for the 2023-24 season.
“I can probably tell you how things are going to go down at the banquet and what they are going to say to us at (tournament) meetings,” said Vipers head coach Wade Waddell. “Experience is not going to be an issue for us.”
“I can probably tell you how things are going to go down at the banquet and what they are going to say to us at (tournament) meetings. Experience is not going to be an issue for us.” – Wade Waddell
The Vipers, who won the Don Johnson Memorial Cup in 2011 and 2013, are joined in the five-team field by the host Mount Pearl Blades, Kent Koyotes (New Brunswick), Antigonish Bulldogs (Nova Scotia) and the St. John’s Caps (Newfoundland and Labrador). The Bulldogs defeated the Vipers in the 2023 championship game.
“It’s very competitive,” said Vipers left-winger Carson MacKay. “Teams from across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are very good, very strong and you need to come every night and every game matters.”
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The teams will play a round-robin schedule and the top four teams will advance to the semifinals on April 27. The championship game goes April 28.
“I’ve been to a lot of these and (one year) all five teams were 2-2 (after the round robin),” said Waddell. “Lots can happen and there’s lots of math involved, which isn’t my strong point.
“For me, it’s securing that playoff spot. I don’t care where you play, if you’re the first seed or the fourth seed, you want to make the playoffs and be playing your best hockey come Saturday.”
Busy start
Each team will play two games in one day at some point in the round-robin. For the Vipers, that takes place on Day 1.
“For us, it’s a matter of getting there early and getting ready,” said Waddell referring to the Vipers’ long trip to Newfoundland and Labrador. “(Playing two games in one day early) can be an advantage if you do well the first day.
“If you don’t do well the first day, then you are going to start feeling the pressure. Like always, you want to make it to the playoffs and the first day is going to be important because you are going to have to at least get a win that first day.”
Adjustments
Any time a team in any sport goes away to play in a regional or national event, adjustments are required. That’s no different at the Don Johnson Memorial Cup.
“One of the biggest things you have to adjust to when you are away – and it’s not just because it’s better or worse; I think it’s different – is the officiating,” said Waddell. “Something I’ve noticed as a coaching staff we have done a better job at over the last number of years is having our guys prepared that way.”
Waddell said the players also must adjust to not sleeping in their own bed and maintain good eating habits on the road.
Road to the DoJo
The Vipers finished second in the New Brunswick Junior Hockey League (NBJHL) regular season with a record of 14-8-2 (won-lost-overtime losses). Kensington then swept the Sherwood-Parkdale A&S Scrap Metal Metros in a best-of-seven P.E.I. championship series.
“To me, it’s a damn shame we didn’t get to roll into the Don Johnson Cup,” said Waddell. “We were playing our best hockey when the season ended, and I never saw us play a stretch of hockey like the last five weeks going into the playoffs. We played our best hockey all year in the playoffs against Sherwood.”
Waddell added the Vipers were playing structured with a lot of jam. Not having played since March 24, the Vipers will be looking to regain that formula after a month off from game action.
Between the pipes
A big part of the Vipers’ success this season has been the goaltending tandem of Josh Smith and Noah Visser.
“I’ve never rotated my goalies in the playoffs before, and this is the first time that I did that,” said Waddell. “That was the plan after the year they both had.
“There were times they both arguably took have taken the job as No. 1. We kept rolling them back and forth and they are going to go into the Don Johnson Cup the exact same way. They are both starting a game the first day and if things go according to plan, we will keep the rotation going.”
When they play
Kensington Vipers’ schedule at 2024 Don Johnson Memorial Cup (all times Atlantic):
Round Robin
- April 24: 11:30 a.m. – vs. Kent Koyotes (N.B.).
- 7 p.m. – vs. Mount Pearl Blades (Host).
- April 25: 3 p.m. – vs. St. John’s Caps (N.L.).
- April 26: 11:30 a.m. – vs. Antigonish Bulldogs (N.S.).
End of round robin.
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Playoffs
- April 27: 2:30 p.m. – First semifinal.
- 7 p.m. – Second semifinal.
- April 28: 12:30 p.m. – Championship game.
Snapshots
A quick glance at the 2024 Don Johnson Cup:
- The event features five teams competing for the Atlantic junior B hockey championship.
- This regional tournament started in Kensington, P.E.I., in 1982.
- The late Robert K. Cousins, a long supporter of junior B and juvenile hockey in Kensington, founded the tournament and named it in honour of Johnson, a strong supporter of amateur hockey from Newfoundland and Labrador.
- There was no regional event held from 1991 to 1996. This year marks the 35th time teams have contested the Don Johnson Memorial Cup.
Jason Simmonds is a sports editor with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached by email at jason.simmonds@theguardian.pe.ca and followed on X @JpsportsJason.
