HUNTER RIVER, P.E.I. — A pair of Islanders, who helped Halifax win their first Memorial Cup, will be cheering for the Mooseheads Sunday as the host team looks to add another banner to Scotiabank Centre rafters.
Hunter River's Brent Andrews and Brooklyn's Darcy Ashley played five and four seasons, respectively, for the Herd and were key cogs in Halifax’s 2013 Memorial Cup victory in Saskatoon. Now the duo would like to see this year’s team win the final game of the season after earning a spot in the championship final with a 2-1 record in the round robin.
“It’s awesome to see,” Andrews said Thursday. “The fans deserve it. The building and the city have been electric this whole week, so it makes for an exciting weekend.”
"It shows a lot of hard work and pride within the organization,” Ashley said. “I know Cam (Russell) and Bobby (Smith), along with the coach staff, put a lot into it and to see them be rewarded, (and) to go back to the finals again, is great.”
The Mooseheads will play the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in all Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final. The Huskies, led by Summerside defenceman Noah Dobson, defeated the Guelp Storm 6-4 Friday in the semifinal.
Andrews was part of the opening night festivities with many of his former teammates and said it shows how committed the franchise is to its current and past players.
“It brought up some of the best memories of my life,” said the recent UPEI graduate.
“It would be hard to think of any other major junior team that takes care of their alumni better than the Mooseheads. They welcomed us back in with opened arms.”
Ashley was unable to attend as he is in the midst of lobster fishing season. He did watch each Halifax game before turning in for an early wakeup call to hit the waters. He'll be watching come Sunday night.
“I definitely won’t miss that, no matter how late that one goes," he said. "It will be great to see them compete. Not everybody gets the chance to win a national championship. This organization has come so far over the last eight or nine years.”
Andrews is back on the Island and was unsure if he was going to make it to Halifax for Sunday’s championship.
Mooseheads general manager Cam Russell said it is nice to be part of a game where you can draft a 16-year-old prospect, watch them grow and mature and then see them stay in touch after their junior career comes to an end.
“It’s huge,” he said, “to see the kids again.”
And it wasn’t just a one off.
Andrews and Ashley were both on the stage at the Eastlink Centre as part of the foundation for this year’s Mooseheads squad was laid at the 2016 draft in Charlottetown.
Halifax drafted forward Benoit-Olivier Groulx first overall and traded up to get the second pick, used to select defenceman Jared McIsaac. Their next two picks, both in the second round, were goalie Alexis Gravel and forward Raphael Lavoie.
“It paid off in spades for them,” Andrews said.
Russell acknowledged the importance of the 2016 draft but said the 2014 trade of goalie Zachary Fucale and defenceman Matt Murphy, who were part of the 2013 championship squad, played a key role, too. It netted them two first-round picks plus a selection in the second and third rounds. A year later, they traded Timo Meier to Rouyn-Noranda for a first-, second- and fourth-round picks.
Russell said the 2015 draft also brought in forwards Arnaud Durandeau, Joel Bishop and Ben Higgins, plus defencemen Walter Flower and Denis Toner.
“We wanted to build the foundation of our team through the draft,” Russell said, and then add a few key pieces here and there.
“A lot of people thought we should have made more trades at the Christmas trade period, but we’ve been working on this team for two or three years before that.”
This year's Mooseheads run had Andrews and Ashley think back to their own title victory. The roster had star appeal in draft-eligible players like Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin and Fucale, but it was a much deeper squad.
“We were confident in ourselves. We knew we could do it. Everybody played a role on that team," Ashley said. “No matter if you played five minutes or if you played 25 minutes everybody did their job and that’s why we were so successful. . .
"It was a team filled with good people and when you surround yourself with good people, special things happen. For us, we had the talent and we had the group of people that were able to do it.”
Ashley, also a UPEI Panthers graduate, said his only advice for this year's team is to enjoy the expereince. He said the games go by fast but the memories made will last a lifetime.
A special bond ties the 2013 group and Ashley hopes this year's team can have a similiar ending.
"That’s something nobody can take away from you," he said. "When you win your last game of the season, you’re the champion and that’s something we got to accomplish that year and it’s something I will remember forever.”
Related links
• Huskies oust Storm, will face Mooseheads in Memorial Cup final
