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Tough road ahead for hockey Hawks
The scheduling for the next nine games for the Golden Hawks men’s hockey team is simply shocking in its difficulty.
They will face-off against the last four Ontario University Athletics (OUA) champions. First they face the last years’ champions Western Mustang's, on Halloween night.
After that, they will make the always difficult journey to Thunder Bay to take on the OUA Western conference leaders Lakehead Thunderwolves in a two-game set before returning home to battle the legendary McGill Redmen.
The night after McGill, coach Kelly Nobes’ charges will take on the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). The last time Les Patriotes came to the Waterloo Recreational Complex, it was for the 2006-07 OUA finals where they came away with the championship against the Hawks.
The week after they face both of those visitors from Quebec, the Hawks will travel first to Ottawa to face the OUA East’s third place team in the Carleton Ravens. Only one day after that, they will drive all the way to North Bay to take on the surprising OUA East leaders in the expansion Nipissing Lakers.
Finally, the next weekend the Hawks return home to face Western once more on the 26th, and then move on to visit the top defensive team in the OUA: the Brock Badgers.
Four of these seven opponents are in the CIS Top 10 as of Oct 20. UQTR is currently fourth while Brock, Lakehead and McGill are sixth to eighth respectively.
Here is a preview of some of the Hawks’ upcoming opponents and some players to watch for.
University of Western Ontario Mustangs:
Last year’s OUA champions, and runners up at the National Championship, the Mustangs have been less than dominant thus far this year, not cracking the first CIS Top 10 rankings of the season. It is entirely surprising that that is the case, as they are a team full of high end talent – both up front and on defence.
10 Kevin Baker is a proven producer at the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) level, spending five whole years in the league with Owen Sound, Sudbury, and Oshawa (with John Tavares). Baker, now in his first year at the university level, is tied for the team lead in points.
Shifty winger #29 Keaton Turkiewicz spent three seasons in the OHL with Sudbury, Windsor, and Belleville and is tied with Baker in points.
Other names to watch that have not yet broken out are former Dallas Stars 3rd round pick and 4-year OHL vet forward #27 Aaron Snow; #16 Ryan McDonough, who had 88 and 89 point seasons with Saginaw in the OHL and spent last year playing professional hockey in the Austrian League; and former Western Hockey League player #19 Yashar Farmanara who spent time with the Seattle Thunderbirds, Lethbridge Hurricanes, and Medicine Hat Tigers and was outstanding in the playoff series last year between the Mustangs and Hawks.
The Mustangs back end is also looking as good as ever with mostly all Canadian Hockey League (CHL) veterans such as former London Knights Captain Scott Aarssen (wearing #6 for Western), long-time Belleville Bull #8 Geoff Killing, former Cape Breton Screaming Eagle #5 Jason Swit, former London Knight, and Kingston Frontenac #7 Adam Nemeth, and finally big game performer and Hawk-killer former London Knight #44 Ryan Martinelli.
Other CHL talents include Kyle Lamb, Joe McCann, Patrick Lee, Anthony Grieco, and Keyvan Hunt.
Clearly, this is a fearsome Western Mustangs squad.
McGill University Redmen:
Even the most run-of-the-mill hockey historians will know that McGill University has a longer hockey history than any NHL or European franchise in the world. Indeed on March 3, 1875 the very first organized indoor ice hockey game featured a team that represented McGill, and in 1877 the McGill University Hockey Club was born.
Today the McGill Redmen are one of the top university squads in Canada and feature a very deep and effective roster. This remains true even though they lost a lot of top talent last year to graduation.
9 Alexandre Picard-Hooper is a former 100 point scorer in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, and led the Redmen in scoring last season with 36 points in 28 games. Picard-Hooper is just one member of a very balanced McGill attack.
Along with him is #18 Francis Verreault-Paul, a five-year veteran of the QMJHL’s Chicoutimi Sagueneens, and a man who already has five points in McGill’s two games. He and Hooper lead a strong, though not overly big bunch of Redmen centres.
On the wing, #22 Guillaume Doucet had 35 goals and 71 points in his last junior season in with the Prince Edward Island Rocket of the QMJHL. He is shifty, and quick – always one to watch when he is on the ice.
Also on the wing, #15 Marc-Andre Daneau has size and scoring ability, and was a 20 goal scorer for his QMJHL squad the Lewiston MAINEiacs back in 2006-07.
On the backend the speedy and intelligent #10 Marc-Andre Dorion is always a threat to join the rush and had over 50 points in a season twice, also for Baie-Comeau.
His resume includes five QMJHL season with Acadie-Bathurst and Baie-Comeau. With Dorion is veteran #5 Yan Turcotte, a strong and intense man who in one season in Quebec Junior A had 329 penalty minutes in 43 games. Previous to his time in the Tier II, Junior A league, he spent time with the Quebec Remparts and the Montreal Rocket of the QMJHL.
Other players to watch include #16 Maxime Langelier-Parent (Victoriaville, St. John’s, Gatineau), #3 Stephen Valente (Quebec, Drummondville), #26 Christophe Longpre-Poirier (Quebec), and #6 Sebastien Rioux (Saint John, Chicoutimi).
Although this squad is not as loaded as it has been in the past, it is still a very difficult one to beat.
Note: Laurier head coach Kelly Nobes attended and played for McGill, scoring a whopping 181 points in 131 games. His career included one season where he notched 63 points in only 37 games.
L’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes
L’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, or UQTR for short, is the only strictly francophone school that ices a team in the OUA, and as a result they have the pick of the litter as far as francophone Quebecois go (McGill is in Montreal and therefore is a bi-lingual school). Consequently they have been a consistent force in the OUA for many years now; and this year is no different.
In five games this year, the Patriotes are 5-0, and are only second in the OUA East because they have played two games less than Nipissing.
25 Alexandre Demers leads the team so far this year with 8 points, continuing from where he left off last year when he notched 43 points in his 28 games. Demers spent five full seasons in the QMJHL with the Drummondville Voltigeurs, notching 82 points in the 2005-06 seasons.
Little, yet slick and savvy, #23 Alexandre Blais is a talented recent transfer from St. Francis Xavier University in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) Conference. Blais played four QMJHL seasons with Baie-Comeau and Cape Breton with his best campaign being in 2003-04 where he scored 30 goals.
Other forwards to watch include #19 Jean-Sebastien Breton (Quebec, Val D’Or), #22 Etienne Bellavance-Martin (Rimouski, Drumondville), #17 Alexandre Boivin (P.E.I., Gatineau, Baie-Comeau), #76 Pierre-Alexandre Joncas (Rimouski), and #21 Maxime Levesque (Val D’Or, P.E.I.).
The defence is just as talented with intelligent and skilful though undersized #58 Guillaume Chicoine leading the way. Chicoine, who already has seven points as a defenseman in his five games, spent his time in the QMJHL with Rimouski, Val D’Or, and Baie-Comeau.
27 Louis-Etienne Leblanc is as steady a defenseman as any in the CIS and spent four seasons in the ‘Q’ with Chicoutimi, Val D’Or, Rimouski, and Victoriaville.
Other blue line talent for the Patriotes include the mammoth 6-foot-3, and 230 pound #49 Andre Joanisse (Drummondville, Acadie-Bathurst), #34 Nicolas Desilets (Shawinigan), and #24 Samuel Richard (Val D’Or).
As this wealth of QMJHL experience, and history explains, this UQTR squad is a strong force to be reckoned with.