Boys take on the girls in exhibition hockey game

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

It was a unique concept that had everyone guessing how it would turn out, and it finally came to fruition last Friday evening at McConnell Arena on McGill University’s campus.

What would happen if you took one of the best women’s university hockey teams in the nation in the form of the McGill Martlets, and matched them up with many of the finest 15-year-old boys from the West Island in the form of the midget espoir Lac St. Louis Tigers in an exhibition hockey encounter that would feature no hitting. Would the Martlets be able to keep up with the speed of the Tigers? Would the Tigers be able to control their collective egos if they fell behind against a women’s team?

When all was said and done, everything played out pretty well according to plan. The Tigers, who were on their best behaviour throughout, had a distinct advantage skating-wise, but the Martlets used their experience, puck savvy and pin-point-passing to counter that. The main difference-maker in the contest though, turned out to be Martlets goaltender Charline Labonté. The Canadian Olympic team member pulled off several marvelous stops in the first 10 minutes of the contest, allowing her teammates to regroup and eventually go ahead by three with a little over four minutes left in the third period. The Tigers finally got to Labonté after that though, beating her three times within an eight-minute span to tie the game at 3-3, which is where it ended. To Labonté’s defence though, two Tigers goals, one from Eric Pellerin-Therin to make it 3-2 and the other on the equalizer from Ian Levine, came off perfect shots she really had no chance on. Pellerin-Therin scored the Tigers first goal off a scramble in front of Labonté. “It didn’t take us long to realize they could go defence to defence very nicely,” said Pellerin-Therin, who played bantam AA last year for the West Island Royals. “Their goalie was crazy out there. She was amazing.”

The contest came about as a result of the strong connections between the two teams. Martlets assistant coach Amey Doyle was a goaltending consultant with the Lakeshore Hockey Association where she met current Tigers general manager and former Lakeshore president Chris Sides. Meanwhile, Tigers head coach Stewart McCarthey works at McGill where he has gotten to know Martlets head coach Peter Smith quite well. “I believe this could be an annual thing,” said Smith, who when asked if he would ever consider setting up a contest between his troops and the midget AAA Lac St. Louis Lions, answered with an empathic no.