REDMEN RAP: CIS NATIONALS NOTEBOOK Mar 23, 08 Ice Hockey (M)

By Earl Zukerman

MONCTON – Here are some odds ‘n ends from the CIS men’s hockey championship in Moncton:

DA SCOOP ON DEMERS: Redmen forward Guillaume Demers was named to the CIS all-tournament team...The 5-foot-10, 183-pound centre from Baie Comeau, Que., ended up second in the six-team tourney in both goals and assists… Demers, a 24-year-old management junior, tallied three times and contributed an assist in two contests… He ended up as the team’s top goal scorer in post-season play and was second in points with 6-3-9 in nine playoff contests…

IN FULL BLOOM: Sam Bloom, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound centre from Toronto, ended up as McGill’s leading scorer in post-season play, with five goals and 10 points in nine games… He edged out the aforementioned Guillaume Demers and Shawn Shewchuk (4-5-9)… Bloom finished the campaign second in the team scoring race with 14-28-42 in 43 games overall.

SHEW SHINES: Shawn Shewchuk ended up leading the team in overall scoring with 17-35-52 in 46 games… The fifth-year engineering major from Lloydminster, Alta., finishes his career with 63 goals, 187 points and 355 penalty minutes in 171 games as a member of the Redmen…

UNITED APPEAL: When McGill head coach Martin Raymond decided he wanted to send his team a couple of days early to the CIS University Cup championship, the Friends of McGill Hockey alumni support group, under the direction of FMH President Mike Nelson, decided to rally the troops and do a little fundraising. A solicitation appeal was sent out to the hockey alumni via e-mail and in less than three days, some 44 Redmen boosters responded with online pledges totaling $9,500…

ROAD WARRIORS Among the former Redmen who made the trek out to see their alma mater play in Moncton, was Chad Blundy (2000-05), who won the “long distance award” for travelling from Oakville, Ont… Honorable Mention went the threesome of Marc Lajeunesse (1986-91), Joel Sitak (1986-90) and Brent Bannerman (1986-90), who teamed up to make an eight-hour car ride from Boston… The “longest transit award” went to Pierre-Antoine Paquet (2001-06), a former captain and assistant coach, who took and 18-hour (!) train ride from Montreal…

SHOWING THAT THEIR ALMA MATERS: Among the other former Redmen spotted in the crowd was Charlie Lafontaine (1948-49), Chris Bryant (1962-65), Herb Madill (player: 1971-72; coach: 1972-79), Mike Nelson (1978-84) and former student-manager Allyn Hunter (1992-96)…

MORE ALUMNOTES: Mathieu Darche (1996-00) is starting to hit his stride with the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning and after a hot weekend, has now scored six goals and 20 points in 66 games this season... NHL coaches Jamie Kompon (1985-89) and Mike Babcock (1983-87), both former Redmen captains and teammates, were among the 44 Friends who pledged donations to the team... Kompon is in his ninth NHL season, including his second campaign as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings after seven years in St. Louis... On Saturday, Babcock, in his third year with the Detroit Red Wings (after two seasons in Anaheim), became the first coach in NHL history to win 50 games in each of his first three seasons with a team.

THINGS GO BETTER WITH COKE: Alain Robichaud, who starred with the Redmen from 1983 to 1986 and is currently the VP-sales operations for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Canada, also pledged a donation and made arrangements to ship a sizeable supply of Coca-Cola produced sports drinks to the Redmen at their hotel in Moncton.

HARD LUCK MAT: With less than 10 minutes remaining in his final game as a member of the Red & White, injury-plagued Mathieu Leclerc suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in his knee… Leclerc, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound centre from Quebec City, missed the first half of the season with a broken hand suffered in training camp…He has previously been hindered with knee and shoulder injuries, among others… Leclerc played 159 games for the Redmen, posting a lifetime 39-68-107 record with 208 penalty minutes…

TIMING IS EVERYTHING: A number of members of the McGill family were hit with kinks in their flight plans to Moncton as a result of poor weather conditions… Defenceman Erik Stilling, who recently underwent shoulder surgery, was expected on Wednesday evening… His flight from Montreal was cancelled due to freezing rain and he was put on standby status; he was not able to rejoin his teammates until midway through the second period of Friday’s loss to Alberta… Also, the parents of Mathieu Poitras, had a two-day weather-related stopover in Montreal on their way from Gatineau, Que.

MONCTON MEMORIES: Vincent Lambert, a sophomore Ste. Therese, Que., assisted on Saturday’s game-winner by Guillaume Demers in McGill’s 3-0 victory over Moncton before nearly 4,000 fans at the Moncton Coliseum… A former captain with the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL, Lambert has had to endure a few tough losses in the Coliseum, including Friday night’s 7-3 setback to Alberta… “They have a lot of good fans and to beat (Moncton) in front of their home crowd was nice,” Lambert told the Moncton Telegraph-Journal. ”We wanted to show them we weren’t just here to have fun and play around.”

BIDDING ADIEU?: The Redmen could be losing up to 13 players in the off-season… Among those are fifth-year senior forwards Shawn Shewchuk and Mathieu Leclerc… Other seniors who still have eligibility remaining but are expected to graduate include F Charles Gauthier, F Eric L’Italien, G Mathieu Poitras, D Steven Pearce, D David Urquhart, F Chris Churchill-Smith... Other possible grads include third-year veterans D Yan Turcotte, D Ken Morin, D Louis-Simon Allaire, F Guillaume Demers and G Jean-Michel Filiatrault…