As alumni and current students come together to celebrate the memories of the Lady Beaverbrook Rink, a small group of middle-aged men collaborate in the corner.
For photos from the game click here.
Dressed elegantly, they hold a beer in one hand, while using their other to motion as they tell stories and relive their playing careers. Rambunctious laughter fills the air and broad smiles light up the dimly lit Oak Room at the Forest Hill Conference Centre.
Two of them, Phil Daigle and Rick Poirier, played together from the late 80s to early 90s. Daigle, a centre, played from 1989-94, while Poirier played from 1988-91.
The three years they played together brought out some great memories.
“That there is the craziest goalie you will ever see put on pads,” Daigle said, pointing at Poirier. “He used to throw sticks at me when I shot the puck too hard in practice; I’d never even heard of that before,” he said.
While Poirier acknowledges he enjoyed throwing sticks at teammates, he also mentions the thrill of playing in front of a packed crowd at the LBR.
“I just enjoyed playing in front a full house…it was playing in front of your hometown. It was just a great atmosphere for fans to be there…it’s a memory that lasts forever,” Poirier said.
With the LBR closing, the Tommies will be moving to a new home – the Grant-Harvey Centre. Poirier thinks it will have a tremendous effect on the hockey programs at St. Thomas.
“It’s going to be good for recruitment. I mean a nicer facility brings a spark in the eye to the higher ranked player…It’s going to come down to how you sell your program and that’s going to be a huge selling factor for St. Thomas.”
Mel McKenzie echoed that sentiment, saying the new arena will make a difference, especially on the ice.
“The class of players that come in now are used to the big rinks. They’re used to better ice surfaces and bigger ice surfaces…it’s going to make a difference.”
McKenzie had numerous roles with the Tommies over the years. He played from 1969-72 before coaching from 1974-77 and was also assistant coach from 1978-80.
“I’ve done everything,” he said.
McKenzie got to relive one of his favourite pastimes, as he joined Tommies head coach Troy Ryan behind the bench during Friday night’s game at LBR, the last-ever men’s game to be played in the rink.
While McKenzie relishes everything he achieved at St. Thomas, the fondest memory of his time in charge was not a positive note.
“Somebody at St. Thomas decided to take the team out [of] the league for a couple of years. They realized it was a mistake and they brought us back…There’s just no way you can separate St. Thomas and hockey,” he said.
Although only in his first year as Tommies head coach, Troy Ryan has plenty of memories of the LBR from his time as a University of New Brunswick player, including one controversial memory with his now assistant Eric Bissonnette.
“UNB used to warm up down the far end and we had to skate through STU’s warm-up to leave the ice and a puck just happened to pop on my stick so I decided just to fire one on STU’s goalie…and actually Eric Bissonnette…chased me down the tunnel and beat me up down in the hallway.”
The Tommies will always be connected to the LBR and many past players are looking forward to establishing new memories at the Grant-Harvey Centre. But for Daigle, he wouldn’t change the LBR for the world.
“The LBR is like a person in itself. The way you describe that is you can’t replace the friendships that place has created.”
