Para ice hockey is a rapidly growing sport in Canada and much of this growth is thanks to the international success of Canada’s national para-hockey team.
In the Paralympics, Canada has won five medals since the sport was introduced in 1994. The last one came in the 2022 Beijing Games, where the team collected silver.
The main annual event for the sport, the Para Hockey Cup, has been hosted on Canadian soil since 2007. Canada has done well at the event, finishing second in the last eight tournaments and last winning in 2011.
Growth of the sport has led to cities across the country offering residents the opportunity to try the sport.
Fredericton is one of those locations.
Every Sunday, a group of players gather at the Grant-Harvey Centre to play.
The capital region sledge hockey team, also known as the Fredericton Caps, is put on by Hockey New Brunswick. According to Hockey New Brunswick’s website, the Caps are the first para hockey team of its kind to exist in the capital city.
One of the organizers of the weekly para ice hockey group Shane Dunnett has been involved with the sport for the last 10 years, taking on the role of president of Para Hockey NB.
“I originally started back with Easter Seals. They had a program, 10 or 12 years ago, where everyone [could] come out and have a try, kids of all ages. I went and played for the first time with them. I loved it because my background was hockey, before my injury,” said Dunnett. “From my injury, I wasn’t able to play stand-up hockey, so this was just taking me right back on the ice, which is great.”.
Dunnett said that this served as the basis to eventually end up with the formation of the Fredericton Caps, who joined the league five years ago and from there, they grew into Team New Brunswick two seasons ago.
Para hockey has been a sport in Canada since 1993. Once known as sledge hockey, the sport offers an alternative to Canada’s national sport, ice hockey.
According to the Canadian Paralympic Committee, para hockey is a “fast-paced and highly physical” sport, played by people who have a physical disability in their lower body.
Instead of skates and a longer stick, players use double-bladed sleds. The sleds have a space on the bottom that allows for puck passage. In addition, two sticks are used by players, which have a spiked end for pushing and a blade for shooting.
“Para hockey was developed for those individuals with mobile impairments that cannot play stand up, or if they can play stand up, it’s very limited,” he said. “However, in Canada and the reason in our program, we allow both people with and without disabilities to play.”
Although he acknowledged that the sport is growing, Dunnett would like to see what he calls a “league of our own” in New Brunswick.
The league would include teams from places like Saint John, Moncton, Fredericton and Miramichi coming together to play a tournament once a month.
Dunnett’s hopes for para hockey in New Brunswick would be to “give Nationals a crack” sometime in the future.
“We have a good foundation now and it’s been building. The numbers are picking up every year and we do have enough now to roster a team to compete in the Maritime League,” he said. “We have a New Brunswick team as well that we will travel to the maritime league tournament and we’ll play an exhibition game against Team Nova Scotia.”
Justin Allen is a para ice hockey player. He has been on the Fredericton Caps for almost a month, transitioning into the sport after retiring from the military almost a year ago because of a back injury.
“I played hockey since I was a kid, all the way up to 2017 when I couldn’t play anymore because of the standing up and stuff and [then] I heard about these guys,” said Allen. “When I talked to Shane and Sean, the organizers, they said, ‘Come on out, try it.’ It’s been great.”
Allen said he was involved in several other sports in the past, including ball hockey and ice hockey. He said, playing para hockey is “all that [he] does now.”
“I would say, give it a try. You don’t know until you try it. It’s a great sport. you don’t need to be able to skate,” said Allen.
“The group of people you’re playing with are just good people. They want to play the game; they want it to be a good sport.”
