First Redmen summer 4-on-4 tourney a thriller

Aug. 18, 2009

The first annual Redmen Summer Hockey 4-on-4 tournament concluded on Aug. 16 with Team Laval winning the championship after a 6-5 thriller over Tour Mont-Royal at McConnell Winter Arena, which had ice in August for the first time ever.

The Laval squad featured three current Redmen players - forwards Guillaume Doucet and Alexandre Picard-Hooper plus Yan Turcotte, a rugged defenceman who was named tournament MVP with eight goals and five assists in five games.

Laval was given a scare in the quarter-finals with a dramatic shootout win over the Flying Accountants, a team led by Redmen grads Mathieu Leclerc, David Guenette and Patrick Bilodeau.
Turcotte tallied a pair of goals in regulation and Picard fired a laser shot in the shootout to give them the win.

In the semifinal round, Laval squeaked out a 3-2 decision over Altos, a veteran Redmen squad which normally plays during the fall and winter in the McGill Alumni Hockey League.
Among the many ex-Redmen to participate in the tournament was Mathieu Darche who has played pro for the past nine years since graduating in 2000. Darche, a 32-year-old native of St. Laurent, Que., recently signed a two-way contract with the Montreal Canadiens after NHL stops in Columbus, Nashville, San Jose and Tampa Bay.

Also playing was Pierre Gendron, who was recently announced as a new inductee to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame. The ceremonial luncheon is slated for Oct. 14. Tickets for that event are $65 and can be reserved by contacting Kathryn Weaver at Kathryn.weaver@mcgill.ca or 514-398-7002.

The unofficial "long-distance award" went to Dave Barette, a former Redmen rearguard and West Island native who flew in from Dubai where he is a senior executive with CAE.
The summer tourney was organized to fundraise for the McGill hockey program along with creating another event on the agenda for the Friends of McGill Hockey. All current players, former players and friends are invited to participate. A total of 11 teams were registered for this year's event, which featured a total of 18 games and about 110 players of all age groups, including 11 current Redmen players. All profit from the weekend goes towards the team's trip to Alberta during the Christmas holidays.

The Tournament committee, which included assistant coaches Jonathan Lamy and Jean St-Pierre, administrative assistant Van Truong and former Redmen goaltending great Mathieu Poitras, thanks everyone who participated this year inaugural edition of the tourney and invites everyone back to the second edition next August.

The Redmen are scheduled to open training camp on Sept. 6 and their first preseason contest is set for Sept. 18 in Trenton, Ont., against Royal Military College. Other non-conference games are scheduled against the defending national champions from UNB (Sept. 25-26 in Fredericton), Ottawa (Oct. 2 at McConnell Arena) and at UQTR (Oct. 7). The Redmen are slated to host their regular season opener against Concordia, Oct. 16, as part of the Homecoming Week festivities at McGill.

Tournament Final Standing (and Redmen players/alumni involved):
1- Team Laval (Yan Turcotte, Alexandre Picard, Guillaume Doucet)
2- Tour Mont-Royal (Maxime Langelier)
3- Altos (Mathieu Darche, David Gourde, Pierre Gendron, David Lizotte, Stéphane Fortin, Martin Raymond, Martin Routhier, André Plourde, David Grenier, Stéphane Ducharme)
4- Thunder (Mathieu Poitras, Joel Bergeron, Tim Drager, Vincent Lambert, Simon Marcotte-Légaré, Dave Boucher, Dave Barrette, Chad Blundy, Ken Morin)
5- Team Pierre-Luc (Spencer Brennan, Pierre-Luc Gosselin, Hubert Morin)
6- Team Paquet (Pierre-Antoine Paquet, Daniel Jacob, Benoit Martin, Lucas Madill, Stéphane Beaudoin)
7- The Huskies (Louis-Simon Allaire)
8- The Flying Accountants (Mathieu Leclerc, Patrick Bilodeau, David Guenette)
9- Team Fleurent (no McGill players)
10- The North Stars (no McGill players)
11- The Living Legends (Marc-André Dorion, Steven Valente, Jonathan Lamy)