Poitras returns from Anaheim, wins two more awards Apr 26, 08 Ice Hockey (M)

By Earl Zukerman

MONTREAL – Goaltender Mathieu Poitras of Gatineau, Que., returned just in time from a tryout with the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks and added two more trophies to his vast collection at the McGill men’s hockey awards banquet, held before more than 100 alumni and friends at La Brasserie Molson on Friday.

Poitras, a 25-year-old mechanical engineering senior, captured the Dr. Bobby Bell Memorial trophy as team MVP for the third time in four years and won the Molson Cup Award for having accumulating the most three star selections (11) over the season. With 31 awards accumulated over his four campaigns with the Redmen, he is the most decorated male athlete in McGill sporting history, surpassing the 21 awards won by Mathieu Darche, currently skating for the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning.

Simon Courcelles, a 21-year-old physical education major from Rosemere, Que., won the Friends of McGill Hockey trophy as rookie of the year and Evan Vossen, 21, an arts freshman from Swift Current, Sask., received the Albert Fyon Memorial trophy as most improved player.

Poitras is an Academic All-Canadian who received permission to have his April exams deferred in order to have what turned out to be a three-week tryout with Anaheim, the defending Stanley Cup champions. The two-time CIS All-Canadian registered a 26-9-0 record over the season with two shutouts, a .929 save percentage and a 1.86 goals-against average. Poitras will graduate in June as the all-time winningest goalie in McGill history with an 84-36-6 record and 17 shutouts in 130 career contests.

Courcelles, a former captain of the Quebec Remparts who became the sixth Memorial Cup winner to play for the Redmen, also earned OUA East rookie-of-the-year honours. He was second in team scoring during the regular season and finished third overall, with 18 goals and 39 points in 45 games. The 5-foot-8 centre tallied 10 power play markers, one game-winner and had one hat-trick.

Vossen, a 6-foot, 190-pound left winger out of La Ronge in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, earned a regular shift in the second semester and scored five goals and eights points in 38 games overall.

Head coach Martin Raymond, who guided the Redmen to their first Queen’s Cup league championship since 1946, also bid an emotional adieu to 11 players who are not expected to return.

Each graduating senior received a McGill tie, a personalized action photograph and their official game jersey.

The list included the goaltending tandem of Poitras and Jean-Michel Filiatrault, the Laval, Que., plus defencemen Steven Pearce of Fredericton, Louis-Simon Allaire of Sherbrooke, Que., and team captain David Urquhart of Thorold, Ont.

Departing forwards include fifth-year veterans Shawn Shewchuk of Lloydminster, Alta., and Mathieu Leclerc of Quebec City. Rounding out the list is Chris Churchill-Smith of Westmount, Que., and Guillaume Demers of Baie Comeau, Que., plus Quebec City natives Eric L’Italien and Charles Gauthier, both of whom are working on a second degree in law and could return.