Stars Come To Play At Stoney Creek Showcase

Hundreds of NCAA committed players and U-18 national team members descended on Stoney Creek for the annual Showcase tournament, one of the top events globally.

The annual Stoney Creek Showcase took place this weekend with 64 teams from across North American converging to compete. The tournament featured hundreds of NCAA Division I committed players, U-18 national team players, and uncommitted prospects. 

Among them, was Mackenzie Alexander of the Etobicoke Dolphins. Alexander has played in the Stoney Creek Showcase for three years, and was a member of Canada's gold medal winning U-18 national team in 2022.

"It's great to see this tournament grow," Alexander told The Hockey News. "It's a huge tournament and the talent level is awesome. Obviously it's great to see American teams playing too, so we can see teams from all over."

Teams did come from all over to play in the event, which is located midway between Toronto and Niagara Falls, Ontario. In the 2023 event, teams came from 18 states and provinces, California, Texas, Florida, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Alberta, Ohio, New York, and DC.

"It's really great competition," said USA U-18 national team member Rose Dwyer, who attended as a member of the Bishop Kearney Selects. "It's a good opportunity to play teams at a really high level."

"I think it's really impressive for an organization to put on an event like this for women's hockey," said Wisconsin commit, and former U-18 USA national team member Finley McCarthy who also plays for Bishop Kearney. "It's exciting as an American team to come up here and play some different competition. The style of hockey is a little different, it's rougher, so it's a lot of fun."

The Divisions are named for alumni of the tournament  including Sarah Nurse, Laura Fortino, Elaine Chuli, Kirsten O'Neill, and Brianne Jenner.

This year, the tournament featured stars including Nela Lopusanova, Chloe Primerano, Caitlin Kraemer, and many other national team standouts like Venusio, Dwyer, and McCarthey. In total, more than 25 members of Canada and USA's U-18 national teams competed in the event this year.

Through the four game round robin, scoring leaders included Burlington's Claire Murdoch (8), Etobicoke's Mackenzie Alexander and Jenna Smellie (9), John Abbot's Sienna D'Allesandro (12), Jade Barbirati (10), and Manon Le Scodan (10), Kingston's Peyton Armstrong (8), Grace Outwater (9) of the Ottawa Lady Sens, RINK Kelowna's Chloe Primerano, and Whitby's Rylan Haslam (8).

The tournament saw the Etobicoke Dolphins face John Abbott College in the gold medal game. Etobicoke eventually won the tournament beating John Abbott College 1-0 in the final with Canadian U-18 netminder Hannah Clark picking up the shutout.

Other top teams in the tournament included the Bishop Kearney Selects, RINK Kelowna, the Barrie Jr. Sharks, Durham West Lightning, and Little Caesars.