The U18 AAA Telus Cup Regionals in Virden on the weekend attracted lot of fans and will generate a profit for a number of organizations.

After a 2020, 2021 cancellation and a 2022 postponement, the Town of Virden, Southwest Cougars and 2022 Telus Cup Planning committee were thrilled to be a second-time host community for the Telus Cup Western Regionals U18 Championship. This event brings together the host team and the top U18 teams from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northern Ontario to playoff for A spot in the National Telus Cup happening now in Okotoks May 9th – 15th.

Clayton Murray is Chairperson of the host committee and he was pleased sponsors stuck with their championship and they had lots of fans in the stands this past weekend. “We were very pleased because we had great crowds all weekend and the final on Sunday had well over 1,000 people in the stands. The Cougars were in the game until the last 20 seconds so we couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Virden’s economic development manager Liza Park spent the entire weekend at the rink in Virden and she said fans were impressed with Tundra Oil and Gas Place. “We started planning this in 2019 so we were excited to finally get the event completed. I helped plan this with Grant Moffatt so we’re glad the event was such a big success for Grant. The Southwest Cougars were excited and it was nice having them in the final.”

Park spent her entire time in the arena but she knows a number of people made their way from the rink to stop in local restaurants and other stores.

"We’re happy to have the championship done and it’s been a bitter sweet process all the way through. No one expected the process to take three years to complete but that added to the sweetness of it as well” said Clayton Murray.

“Our sponsorship was through the roof and it was a bit of a tricky situation because the Cougars aren’t in Virden normally and our entire area stepped in a huge way for this.”

The host committee has a few bills to clear up and then it will be made public how much money the Telus Cup Regionals generated.

“We don’t have a final number but thousands of dollars will be split between Virden Minor Hockey, Southwest Cougars and Hockey Manitoba” said Liza Park.

The final saw Notre Dame defeat the host Southwest Cougars 4-3.