In This Issue
They Shoot, They Score
U of G men's hockey benefits from Alberta-grown talent
BY DAVID DICENZO
 |
| The men's hockey Gryphons have a distinct western flavour this year with six players hailing from Alberta. From left are Chris Baker, Jeff Oginski, Adam Jennings, Evan Boire, Richard Cotter and Alex Magera. Photo by Martin Schwalbe |
Go east, young man! That's the advice Gryphon men's hockey coach Jeff Reid has been giving high school athletes in Alberta when he's recruiting for his team. And so far, it's working for him.
Reid currently has six players from Alberta on the roster — forwards Evan Boire (Andrew, Alta.), Chris Baker (Leduc) and Alex Magera (Edmonton), defencemen Jeff Oginski (St. Albert) and Richard Cotter (Edmonton) and goaltender Adam Jennings (Calgary).
The Alberta connection began a few years back with Phil Rinn, a Sherwood Park native who earned academic all-Canadian honours and became captain of the Gryphon team. Reid liked what he had in Rinn and kept in touch with his contacts out west, which proved useful in unearthing the current crop of Albertan talent.
“Phil was one of my favourite players, so I explored that, made some connections and tried to follow that up every year,” says the coach. “That's where it all started. Hockey's a pretty small world once you start talking. You make some phone calls, and guys want to help you out and help out their own players. There are only three hockey-playing universities in Alberta, so there are a lot of players out there who may not know about all the options they have.”
The sextet, who played with or against each other at various times as juniors in hockey-mad Alberta, agree that Guelph has proven to be a good option for each of them individually. Cotter and Oginski played their first year in the red, gold and black jersey in 2005/06. Jennings, Magera, Baker and Boire signed on this season, which means the Albertans now account for about 25 per cent of the entire roster.
Although not all of the six are fans of Alberta's Edmonton Oilers, “we have to stick together when we get ganged up on here in Leaf nation,” says Cotter with a laugh, referring to the many Toronto Maple Leaf fans who rib the group. “They were all over us last year saying the Oilers weren't going to go anywhere, but we were 20 minutes away from having the last laugh.” (Edmonton lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals).
Jennings, a U of G Athlete of the Week in October, adds that all the Leaf fans in his residence hit the TV room as soon as a Toronto game is on. “You can't watch anything else on television,” he says. “I would always bug them. The Leafs always lost last year . . . so I'd say: ‘Give it up, let's watch something else.'”
The good-natured battles over national hockey will no doubt continue, but here on campus, the Alberta players are evolving into important components of a young team loaded with first- and second-year players, says Reid.
Baker, who last played at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton, is among the team's scoring leaders with five goals and nine assists through his first 19 games. Magera also had nine assists through the same stretch, tying Baker for the third-best total on the Gryphon team. Jennings, a former goaltender with both the Red Deer Rebels and Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League, has had the bulk of the work in the Guelph net this year, posting a solid .900 save percentage. Cotter and Oginski, both veterans of the rugged Alberta Junior Hockey League, are two of the anchors on defence. Boire, who got his first taste of Ontario University Athletics (OUA) action in the new year, scored his first goal in just his second game, a short-handed effort assisted by Magera.
Boire believes the experience gained in the competitive leagues back home has prepared them well for the high level played in OUA, a league featuring numerous former junior hockey stars.
“The players are a lot bigger and stronger,” he says. “There's more thinking involved in the game. It's the next step up, so you definitely have to make some adjustments.”
Reid says the passion that the six bring to their sport will pay dividends as U of G's hockey program develops.
“There's definitely a mentality out west that hockey is something they do and do well,” he says. “They don't take shortcuts. As a coach, you look for those characteristics and the type of players who will inject that into your whole program. They've all been captains on their previous teams and have been the go-to guys their coach really relied on. For a young program, that's the biggest building block you can have. I believe that's where you have to start — with character. If you have kids who do everything they can not to lose, that will go a long way.”
Although ice is ice wherever you hang up your skates, the Alberta transplants say life in Ontario is markedly different than it is back home.
“Everything's go, go, go,” says Oginski. “In Alberta, everything seems a little more relaxed, a little bit slower. Here, if you're not in the fast lane, you're in the way.”
Perhaps the biggest culture shock was for Boire, whose hometown of Andrew (one hour northeast of Edmonton) has a population of 400. “It's definitely different for me coming here,” he says, “but I'm enjoying it so far.”
Besides gathering to watch Oiler games on TV, the Alberta gang can get a taste — literally — of their home province at Caribou Creek restaurant. “That's about as close as it gets to good Alberta beef,” says Cotter. “And they take the meal card,” adds Magera.