Former Comox Valley Midget Chief Cole Holowenko is enjoying life in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
The 19-year-old goaltender made 24 saves for his first QMJHL shutout as the Moncton Wildcats blanked the visiting Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 4-0 on Saturday, Jan. 5.
Holowenko started the season with the Western Hockey League's Everett Silvertips and in four starts with them, he had no wins and a 6.41 goals-against average.
After being released in late October by the WHL club, the Fort Nelson, B.C., native signed with Moncton on Nov. 7 and is now 6-4-0 with 3.22 goals-against average and .882 save percentage in 11 games.
Alex Dubeau of the Wildcats is ninth in QMJHL goaltending stats with a 17-12 record, 3.12 GAA and .883 save percentage.
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Courtenay golfer Mark Valliere just wrapped up a seven-day camp in Phoenix, Arizona and later this month will be travelling to Bogota, Colombia as part of Team Canada to play in the South American Amateur Championship. The tournament is a qualifier for the World Amateur later in the year.
The 18-year-old Valliere is on Canada's National Development Team after a strong 2012 season. He posted a fourth-place finish at the Canadian Junior Boys Championship and also finished tied for 39th at the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship.
The Crown Isle golfer also finished in the top-15 at both the B.C. Amateur Championship and B.C. Junior Boys Championship and was runner-up at the CN Future Links Pacific Championship.
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Team Canada, with assistant coach Robert Ratcliffe of Crown Isle, won the overall championship at the 2013 Copa de las Americas at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami, Fla. on Sunday, Jan. 6.
Contested on the par-72 TPC Blue Monster Course, Canada posted a four-day tally of 25-over-par 1177 to win by one stroke over Team Mexico and two strokes over two-time defending overall champion Team USA.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the team this week. They played fantastically well,” said Ratcliffe. “We did a great job in preparing for and reviewing each round and making the necessary adjustments. Our post-round evaluations and practices went extremely well, and the fact that the players were familiar with one another from the Team Canada program and the World Amateur Team Championships brought a great sense of ‘team’ to the group.”
A biennial team event, the Copa de las Americas is an amateur team competition for countries in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
Eleven men’s teams and eight women’s teams competed in the fifth playing of the championship which consisted of three 72-hole, stroke-play competitions – overall, men and women. Eighteen holes of stroke-play were contested on each of the four days of the event.