The Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) University Cup is not the first taste of national level competition for many players competing in Halifax this past week.
Before their university hockey careers began, most played in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) and some of them competed at the Memorial Cup, a four-team, week-long tournament featuring the best junior hockey teams in the country.
Mike Thomas currently plays for the University of Fredericton Varsity Reds and captained the Saint John Sea Dogs to a Memorial Cup in 2011. He said he believes the similarities between the two tournaments is beneficial when preparing for the University Cup.
“Both the Memorial Cup and the University Cup are tournaments, so they’re short sprints—just taking care of your body and making sure you’re ready to play every game is the most important thing,” he said.
Thomas played on that team alongside Saint Mary’s Stephen MacAulay and Carleton’s Jason Seed, as well as current National Hockey League (NHL) forward Jonathan Huberdeau and NHL head coach Gerrard Gallant.
“Gallant was a tremendous coach and I think I owe a lot to him for the year I played for and for where I am now,” Thomas said.
“He was a big reason why we won what we won and the things we accomplished in Saint John—he’s an excellent coach.”
Both Seed and MacAulay agreed that their Memorial Cup experience benefited them at the University Cup.
“I thinking playing hockey that long in the season and making it that far always gives you more experience,” Seed said. “The pressure and excitement and everything that comes with playing at a big tournament like that.”
“Not as many jitters,” MacAulay said of his opening University Cup game this year compared to his first Memorial Cup game.
“I’ve already played on the national stage three times actually so I was pretty fortunate to play on some strong teams and to hoist the Memorial Cup twice, was obviously some of the bets moments of my life.”
Competitors from the 2012 Memorial Cup were also well represented at the University Cup.
Two players at the tournament with Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), Sebastian Auger and Pierre Olivier-Morin, were at the Memorial Cup with Saint John and Shawinigan respectively.
University of New Brunswick goaltender Alex Dubeau also played with Olivier-Morin in Shawinigan, while Seed and MacAulay returned to the tournament with Auger.
Other notable players at that tournament included Carleton’s Brett Welychka (London) and Western’s Cole Benson (Edmonton).
“I was actually just talking with guys like Mike that played in the Memorial Cup and we were saying that this week is pretty much the exact same,” Dubeau said of the two tournaments.
“We come here a week in advance to prepare, playing other teams that we never faced through the season, so it’s new teams and some are old rivals,” he said.
“It’s just the atmosphere that everybody wants to win the trophy at the end. It’s an awesome experience—for sure the Memorial Cup, I was lucky to win the Memorial Cup in Shawinigan with a great team there and I’m hoping this year to win again with a bunch of guys here that like to win and were having fun,” he said.
Many players found their familiarity with their opponent to be beneficial at the University Cup.
“I tried to give the guys some pointers against Auger because I played with him for a year and a half and I shot on him everyday,” MacAulay said. “He’s a heck of a goalie—really quick side-to-side. He’s smaller but he gets across the net really quick. We had to shoot high and we did that a couple times.”
While Dubeau said he didn’t recall many players from the tournament, he said we recalled most of the goalies that were there.
“Auger was in Saint John—I remember Seed too was playing in Saint John,” he said.
“I didn’t really look at [who was there], but for sure the Saint John boys I remember, our games against them were pretty intense, pretty good rival with Shawinigan back then—its good memories for sure,” Dubeau said.
