YEAR IN REVIEW: Sports Year in Review

It was an incredible year for local athletes and coaches, winning championships at the national and local level. 

Hockey fans also said goodbye to a pair of the best NHLers from Thunder Bay to ever lace them up. 

We also celebrated the Ontario Winter Games and the Women’s World Baseball Cup. Here are my top 16 sport stories. 

1. The year marked the end of an era for potential future hall-of-famer Eric Staal and his brother Marc, the two hockey players announcing their retirements from the game. Staal, who had hoped to catch on for one final season, did not play in 2023-24, while Marc wound down his career with the Philadelphia Flyers. Eric Staal won a Stanley Cup in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes. He will have his No. 12 retired by the Hurricanes next month. 

2. Florida Panthers coach Jamie Kompon brought the Cup home to Thunder Bay. He joined an exclusive club when the team won its first Stanley Cup championship in June. Kompon and the legendary Scotty Bowman are the only coaches in NHL history to win titles with three different teams. He also won rings with Chicago and Los Angeles.

3. Michela Cava and the Minnesota PWHL team captured the inaugural Walter Cup, beating Boston in five games. She brought the Cup to Thunder Bay in November. 

4. The Ontario Winter Games were a huge hit, featuring performances in a variety of sports, including fencing, biathlon, wrestling, archery, futsal, hockey and several more. However, a number of sports were dropped from the games due to flight and cost concerns. 

5. The Women’s World Baseball Cup took centre stage at Port Arthur Stadium in late July and early August. Japan won gold, defeating the U.S. in the championship game, while host Canada captured bronze with a 4-2 win over Mexico in the third-place game. 

6. Carter George became the latest Thunder Bay player to be drafted into the National Hockey League, going in the second round to the Los Angeles Kings, the top North American goaltender taken. He later earned a spot on Canada’s national junior hockey team and recorded shutouts against Finland and Germany in his first two starts. 

7. Trevor Bonot’s team went on a roll at the Montana’s Brier in March, but their 5-3 record was a win short for shot at the playoffs. Bonot scored wins over Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario, but a costly 8-7 loss to Yukon killed their chances of advancing. Krista McCarville missed the playoff round at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts to Manitoba’s Kaitlyn Lawes, finishing in a rare five-way tie for third place in the Pool A standings at 4-4. The Scotties will be held in Thunder Bay in February 2025.

8. The Hammarskjold Vikings senior basketball team won OFSAA gold, a first for a Thunder Bay school. They beat Niagara-area school E.L. Crossley 59-33 in the final to win the AA championship. 

9.  Lakehead’s men’s basketball team cracked the top 10 on the final weekend before the Christmas break, after a stunning 76-67, come-from-behind win over the Carleton Ravens, a team with 17 titles since 2003. 

10. The Thunder Bay Chill returned to the USL 2 playoffs, but the run was a short-lived. The Chill lost to Peoria City and team officials later expressed concern the club may not be invited back to the league in 2025. The league has concerns about having just one Canadian team. The Chill were forced to sit out three seasons due to the pandemic. 

11. The Westgate Tigers completed their season undefeated, winning the local senior high school football championship with a 44-14 win over the St. Patrick Fighting Saints. However, they lost 25-14 to the Frontenac Falcons in the Northern Bowl. 

12. The Sioux Lookout Bombers swept the Kam River Fighting Walleye out of the SIJHL playoffs in four games, wining the team’s first Bill Salonen Cup as SIJHL champions. 

13. The Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s hockey team was a middle-of-the-pack team during the regular season and bowed out in two games to Windsor in the first round of the OUA playoffs. 

14. The Thunder Bay Border Cats narrowly missed a playoff spot in the first half of the season, but wound up with a 35-34 record, their first winning season in more than a decade. 

15. It was another fantastic season at Thunder City Speedway, where thousands of fans came out each week to watch the top local and regional racers do their thing. Cole Chernosky used his success locally to compete at the Gateway Dirt Nationals in St. Louis. 

16. The Kam River Fighting Walleye parted ways with first-year coach Dwight Lee, hiring veteran coach and former SIJHL bench boss Larry Wintoneak to take over the team. He helped turn around the team, guiding them to a 15-5-0 record in his first 20 games.