05/16/2025
Congratulations to the Chatham Chatham Jr Maroons on their Sutherland Cup Championship! The furthest you can go, job finished.
Especially proud of Richard Santos and Bino Pereira - two of my family members. A true testament of putting countless hours into the success of this franchise. Your hard work has paid off!
Chatham Maroons win second Sutherland Cup in franchise history
The Chatham Maroons are Sutherland Cup champions for the second time in franchise history.
Chatham Maroons captain Blain Bacik cradled the Sutherland Cup in his arms.
Everyone on the team had taken their turn with the trophy Sunday. Now it was his again.
“We’ll see how long I get it for, but I’m going to keep it as long as I can,” said the 20-year-old defenceman from Blenheim.
The Maroons won the second Sutherland Cup in franchise history and ended a 26-year drought by holding on for a 6-3 win over the St. Catharines Falcons in Game 6 of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League final in St. Catharines.
They’d said since training camp it was Sutherland Cup or nothing, and they had no intentions of coming home empty-handed.
“It’s been a long season, but, hey, I knew this team was going to battle and that’s what we did,” Bacik said.
Their bus pulled into the Chatham Memorial Arena parking lot just after 2:30 a.m. Monday. They were greeted by supporters, some waving big Maroons flags, while Queen’s We Are the Champions blared from a car stereo.
Players and coaches unloaded their gear and headed to the rink for one final group photo. They squeezed onto the bench as a few camera flashes blinked in the dark arena.
That camaraderie is why they’re champions, coach and general manager Richard Santos said.
“They’re hanging out with each other outside the rink. They’re here at the rink together. They’re spending their time together,” he said. “I’ve never had such a special group than what I had this year.”
Connor Hunt and Carter Chadwick scored twice in Game 6 as the Western Conference champion Maroons won the best-of-seven series 4-2 in front of 819 at the Seymour-Hannah Sports and Entertainment Centre.
Eamon Edgar and Noah Mathieson each added a goal and two assists. Rookie goalie Gannon Hunter made 25 saves for his GOJHL-leading 16th playoff win.
Chadwick won the GOJHL playoff MVP award after scoring a league-high 15 goals.
The 17-year-old rookie forward said it was a “huge joy” being around his teammates all season.
“I feel like everyone just loved each other in the room,” Chadwick said. “Everyone was so tight and so close. We did everything together. Every time we had a team get-together, everyone was laughing, joking and I think that’s what built our championship team.”
The Maroons avenged their loss to the Falcons in the 2022 final with their first Sutherland Cup since 1999.
After first-round playoff losses to the LaSalle Vipers in 2023 and ’24, Santos remade the Maroons’ roster this off-season. He continued tinkering on the campaign.
Only six players –Bacik, Mathieson, Jaxen Fortier-Smith, Josh Harding, Brody Gillis and Cale Marontate – remain from last year’s team.
Seven players – Western Conference playoff MVP Dylan Richter, Western Conference all-star defenceman Ryan VanNetten, Sean Truby, Ewan McChesney, Carter Gillen, Carter Kucher and Logan Burnham – were mid-season pickups.
Edgar, 15, was also added to the roster as an affiliate player from the Sun County U16 AAA Panthers.
“We wanted to make sure that we had the right guys to fit,” Santos said. “We thought once we got around the deadline that we had the ability (with) our core to make a good run. We just had to add a couple pieces.
“I think the couple pieces that we added just put us over the top.”
Richter won the playoff scoring title with 33 points, one more than Falcons captain Cameron Lowe. The 18-year-old forward was acquired at the trade deadline in January from the Strathroy Rockets after being sent down by the OHL’s North Bay Battalion.
“They wanted me to add on to the team to try and win,” Richter said. “It feels good that I was able to provide that. It was worth it.
“I’m just happy I was able to do that and happy for this team. I haven’t had that much fun playing hockey in a couple years.”
Bacik took the first victory lap with the trophy. Then, he handed it to fellow blue-liner Fortier-Smith.
“He’s been here a long time with me, so I thought he was deserving,” Bacik said, “but honestly all these guys are deserving to raise that trophy. It truly is a team effort and all those guys contributed in their own ways all playoffs, all season.”
After a scoreless first period, the Maroons opened the second with four straight goals in 3:11.
The Falcons cut the lead to one before the Maroons added two empty-netters.
“It got a little tight at the end, but it shows the resilience we had all year,” Bacik said. “We shut them down when it really mattered.”
Edgar, a Barrie Colts second-round draft pick, finished the Sutherland Cup final with a team-leading 14 points. That’s the most ever in the GOJHL era, which began in 2007-08.
“A 15-year-old coming in and putting up those numbers is incredible,” Santos said. “Barrie got a steal in the second round. … I think all the other OHL teams are sitting there saying, ‘What’s going on?’”
Hunt began the second-period barrage by scoring at 4:51. Chadwick followed at 6:39 and Edgar scored 17 seconds later.
Hunt scored again at 8:01 for the 4-0 lead.
Brendan Grenville began the Falcons’ rally late in the second. Nathan Duplessis, on a power play, scored in the third at 8:38 and William Moore followed at 10:25.
Hunter shut them down the rest of the way. He was in net for every Maroons playoff win.
Chadwick and Mathieson scored the empty-netters.
“We had a hell of a game tonight,” Santos said.
Everyone in the organization deserves credit for the championship, he said.
“It might be my name as the GM, but it’s been from the ownership (Bill and Karen Szekesy) giving us the ability to go get players, to the assistant coaches, to the guys that have to stay here and do the laundry,” Santos said. “It takes everybody.
“I’m not taking any credit for this. I give it to everybody.”
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