Over 200 participants turned up for the 36th Montreal Muslim Ball Hockey (MMBH) tournament on May 11 at John Abbott College campus in Montreal. For the first time since it was founded 21 years ago, the bi-annual tournament featured two tiers, with five elite teams playing in Tier I and the remaining thirteen teams competing in Tier II.
Tier I finals featured perennial favourites Green Army, who were an all-Montreal team save for Ottawa star goaltender Aneel Anwar Nauth, emerging victorious over a team consisting of mainly Toronto-area players. The first period had Green Army with a slight 2-1 advantage, which they later opened up further and routed their opponents by a score of 7-1. Green Army captain Sophian Mian, well established as one of the top players in Montreal, incurred an injury during the finals but returned to score a goal in leading his team to their sixth ever championship.
On Dec. 1, the Montreal Muslim Ball Hockey Tournament celebrated its 20th anniversary with its 35th tournament held at John Abbott College in Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue.
The mainly bi-annual tournament is a volunteer-driven, non-profit event that has been a longstanding tradition for Montreal's Muslim community. It began in 1992 with five teams at the NDG YMCA and has continued to grow, now regularly attracting up to 20 teams and around 200 Muslim youth and adults, typically aged 15 to 45, from across Quebec, Ontario, as well as Canada and the United States.
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