The Bell Capital Cup, formerly the Bell Canada Cup is an annual

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

tournament staged in Ottawa,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

between Christmas and New Years. It is open to youth teams aged 9–13 from all over the world. The tournament attracts over 500 teams annually was named by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as "the world's largest hockey tournament". Proceeds from the tournament help to fund local minor hockey programs in the Ottawa area.

Format

The Bell Capital Cup offers twenty-one divisions in atom (squirt) and peewee divisions. Nineteen divisions feature boys teams in AAA, AA, A, B and House league divisions (classified as A, B and C) and two atom and peewee girls divisions (AA). The tournament provides each team with a 3-game minimum for AA, A, B and House league divisions, while teams in the AAA divisions receive a 4-game minimum. The tournament features a round-robin format, with the winner of each group advancing to the playoff round. The finals are held at Canadian Tire Centre. The games are played in 20+ venues and 35 rinks, including the Bell Sensplex, the Kanata Rec Centre, the

Nepean Sportsplex Nepean Sportsplex is a sports facility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 1701 Woodroffe Avenue north of the Ottawa Greenbelt, near the former Confederation High School along OC Transpo routes 74 and 75 in the former city of Nepean. Th ...

, the Ray Friel Centre, the Orleans Recreation Centre, the

Minto Skating Club The Minto Skating Club is a competitive figure skating club in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1904. The Club is a member of the Skate Canada figure skating organization in Canada, and was a founder of the predecessor organization to Skate Can ...

, and the Jim Durrell Recreation Centre. Many future NHL stars have played in this tournament, as well as others who have progressed to semi-pro, NCAA, CIS, Major Junior, Junior A or Junior B career. Notable alumni include Jeffrey Skinner (Buffalo Sabres), John Tavares (Toronto Maple Leafs), Calvin De Haan (Chicago Black Hawks), Erik Gudbranson (Ottawa Senators), Artem Sergeev (KHL), as well as Alexander Ovechkin's cousin, Leonid and former NHLers Cody Ceci and Jesse Winchester. Over the years, many top teams have travelled from all over the world to participate. These teams include: Skylands Kings (two-time champions), Los Angeles Junior Kings, Detroit Belle Tire, South Florida Golden Wolves, Moscow Dynamo, Jokerit Helsinki, German Eagles, Beijing Imperial Guard, Iqaluit Blizzards, Korea Eagles, Chunichi Jr Club (Nagoya, Japan), HC Vitkovice, Budapest Stars, Torino, Italy and Nice, France, and in 2013, the Hong Kong Ice Scrapers participated for the first time. Hundreds of the teams participating come from local associations, such as Canterbury Minor Hockey, Cumberland Minor Hockey, Gloucester Centre Minor Hockey, Kanata Minor Hockey, Metcalfe District Minor Hockey, Nepean Minor Hockey, South End Minor Hockey, and others.

2019 Tournament

The 2019 tournament had 200 teams, 5,340 players, setting a Guinness World Record. $196,000 was raised by the 2019 tournament for local minor hockey associations and charities. The Kanata Blazers were the host team.

Notes and references

External links

* Ice hockey tournaments in Canada Ottawa Senators {{Canada-sport-stub

Format

2019 Tournament

See also

Notes and references

External links