07/15/2025
The 2025 Canadian Wheelchair Floorball Hockey Championship was hosted at the Richmond Olympic Oval in Richmond, BC and proudly sponsored by Hockeyball along with donations from the Vancouver Canucks.
This year featured a Double Round-Robin tournament format with 19 total players spanning three Canadian national teams competing for the coveted "Cherry Cup"!! Team 3 went 4-0-0 in the tournament, while Team 2 finished with a 1-2-1 record, and Team 1 rounded out preliminary play with a 0-3-1, which we all know the prelims do not mean anything.
The Final on Sunday featured two super-teams where Team 3 played Team 2, both with additions from Team 1. The Final had a very home country feel to it in light of whatever kind of tariffs the USA President had in mind for our tournament.
The Final featured the Canuck Canadians vs. the BC Canucks. In the first period, newcomer BK potted a couple beauties for the BC Canucks while Suki Sanghera potted a nice plant for the Canadians from his nephew Manny Sanghera and Captain Kyle Gieni.
Early on in the second period, BK completed the Hat-Trick with another unassisted goal just like a one-manned wrecking crew. Everyone might have been intimidated by his hardest shot during competition clocked at 96 miles per hour (154 km/h)!! Suki got another one for his team while Kyle got another two in the second, evening the score up at 4 a piece after Daryl Yuen scored an important one from teammate Riley Molnar.
The third period was a duel between the Gieni brothers with Quin scoring the first two of the period making it 6-4 for the BC Canucks. After receiving a sweet pass from Robert Pullen, Kyle Gieni would not be outdone, banking one off of his brother's wheel to foil goalie Philippe Bonnot making it 6-5 and also completing a Hattie of his own, which would mean nothing if Kyle's team could not complete the comeback. A late penalty shot was awarded on an illegal hit called by referee Greg Beaudin, which gave the Canadian Canucks one last chance to tie it up and send this one to overtime. However, on this occasion, Philippe Bonnot got the best of Manny Sanghera with a quick glove hand to spoil his plans to grab a cookie from the top shelf, where grandma likes to keep the Oreo's.
Quin Gieni ended up scoring the game winner to help the BC Canucks to a 6-5 victory and ultimately drink from the Cherry Cup for his third Canadian Championship of all time. Philippe Bonnot and teammate/pseudo-son Riley Molnar also shared in the Dynasty with their third Championship in the last 6 years (*2020 & 2021 not included). Player of the final game and therefore the tournament was BK scoring three times and also helped set up the game winner with a Sweet Golden Apple!! Daryl Yuen finally got his name on the cup after being promised a championship last year by Quin Gieni.
Top scorer in the tournament went to Kyle Gieni who ripped the twine 8 times and got 9 helpers along the way for a total of 17. Teammate Manny Sanghera finished with 15 points also ripping it 8 times with 7 apples for his mates. Quin Gieni was obviously fuled by Pittsburgh's arch enemy Alex Ovechkin when he took over Wayne Gretzky's all time goal scoring title, so he scored 13 of his own this time and giving one nice apple sauce to BK for his first ever goal, he ended up with 14 points total. Riley Molnar was 4th in scoring with 11 total points ending up with 6 hard earned ones and 5 red apples for his team. The most improved player goes to the 5th top scorer, Suki Sanghera who has come a long way finishing with 5 BIG ONES and 3 helpers for 8 points in 5 games. MVP and Rookie of the Year went to BK after he posted 5 goals and 2 assists in 3 games played. Veteran Hilary Brown also got 7 points with 3 goals and 4 apples in only 2 games played. First timer Yannick Lehoux posted 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists) in only 2 games played. 9th top scorer saw Daryl Yuen fill this spot when he finished with 4 points potting 2 plants and picking 2 apples. There was a tie for top 10 scorers in the tournament with Parviz Saberi and Gabriel finishing with 3 points each. Newcomer Nickigene surprised even herself when she scored twice in her first ever game played. Veteran Robert Pullen helped his team with 2 delicious red apples and will be back next time to hoist the Cherry Cup. Steve Cooke wheeled into net to play goalie and was ultimately a force to be reckoned with wandering from his goal-line and being a real brick wall between the pipes. Steve also got one BIG APPLE despite being a goalie. With the most important win and one nice helper, Philippe Bonnot was named goaltender of the tournament keeping his team in the mix with every crucial save he made. Another veteran Jurek Golas did just that and got one HUGE GOLAS and one beauty assist in his 5th Canadian National Championship. David Fletcher was the best stay at home defender grabbing one nice apple along the way. Ryan Feng joined the tournament helping his team to a 1-2-1 record. All-time goalie, Carol Martin helped her team to the final, but will have to wait another year to get a chance to drink from the
Cherry Cup.
A special thanks goes out to the score keepers and sandwich makers Kerri Jang and Shirley Giofu, who this tournament would not be possible with your support.
See everyone next year in 2026 for another installment of the Canadian Wheelchair Floorball Hockey Championship!!
