Sticks and pucks flew at the Nepean Sportsplex March 30 as the players threw the rulebook out the window at this year’s Juno Cup.
The event pitted Brad Marsh’s team of NHL Greats, including Claude Lemieux, Gary Roberts, Paul Coffey, and Carleton Ravens assistant coach Shaun Van Allen, against Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo and his team of Rockers.
“I’m not a big hockey fan,” said Yan Werblinski, a first-year health and life sciences student at Carleton who came out for the event. “It sounded interesting having hockey stars face off against [musicians].”
This seemed to ring true as the big names drew a crowd you’d more likely find at a Sunday morning Timbits match over an NHL game. While most of the players held their own on the ice, there were clearly some times of confusion for the Rockers.
The referees appeared to have very little power over the game as players found creative ways to stop the other team from scoring. Rocker goalie Mike Boyd, Classified’s DJ and younger brother, experienced a number of distractions. He had his stick grabbed and later, he had his view obstructed by one of the Greats.
At only 5’4”, singer/songwriter Kellie Loder was dwarfed by most of the players. But that didn’t stop her from dropping her gloves with one of the Greats. Loder, who was up for contemporary Christian/gospel album of the year, was awarded a penalty shot after the fight.
The Greats threw their sticks in Loder’s way as she rushed the net. Distracted by the obstacles, her shot was easily stopped by Juno nominee and goalie David Francey, a late trade from the Rockers to the Greats.
The Greats came out with an early lead, scoring four goals on Boyd. However, Loder and Hollerado’s Menno Versteeg were able to rack up two goals for the Rockers before the end of the first period.
The Rockers made up for their performance in the first half with the skills competition. Losing the first event, short-track racing, they came back to dominate in shooting accuracy.
While none of the players managed to actually hit one of the targets, the Rockers came a lot closer. This is probably because the Greats were blindfolded, spun around and directed by Cuddy to shoot in the direction he pointed them, including the Greats’ full bench.
The celebrity showdown was in support of MusiCounts, a Canadian music education charity.
While the Greats ended up winning 12-10, everyone in attendance was a winner when they had the opportunity to hear Marsh compete in a sing-off against Cuddy. Marsh’s vocals were a clear crowd pleaser as he belted out the lyrics to Blue Rodeo’s “’Try.”
