Yarmouth isn't Hockeyville.
Although we still beg to differ.
With 1,655,475 votes, Yarmouth finished fourth in the Kraft Hockeyville competition. The winning community was Stirling-Rawdon in Ontario, which had 3,986,769 votes.
The votes for Yarmouth had increased significantly since it had moved into the Top 5 from the Top 15. To get into the Top 5, Yarmouth had around 192,000 votes. It was also competing against regions which had a larger population base.
The announcement, which came late Saturday evening, did not come as a total surprise since the results of the Hockeyville competition had been reported online much earlier in the day. Some media reports have said that an embargoed press release that was supposed to have been sent out at 10:45 p.m. ET was sent out at 10:45 a.m. ET instead.
For being named Kraft Hockeyville, Stirling-Rawdon will host a 2012-2013 NHL® pre-season game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets, receive $100,000 in arena upgrade money from Kraft Canada, and enjoy a visit from CBC's Hockey Night In Canada. The Ontario town will also receive $10,000 in food bank donations from Kraft Canada.
More than 11 million votes were registered for the Top 5 communities, between March 17 and March 20, 2012. A breakdown of the final tally follows.
The vote results:
Stirling-Rawdon, ON: 3,986,769
West Kelowna, BC: 2,789,594
Amos, Quebec: 2,207,511
Yarmouth, NS: 1,655,475
Duck Lake, SK: 903,260
For being in the Top 5, Yarmouth still wins $25,000 for arena upgrades.
Kraft Hockeyville activities were held at Mariners Centre all day on March 31.
Activities included a ball hockey tournament, a BBQ, entertainment, a female bantam league championship game (which was won by Yarmouth), hockey clinics for kids of various ages and hockey divisions, a public skate, and Game 7 of the Bent Division final, which the Mariners won.
All-in-all, a great hockey day.
