KENSINGTON, P.E.I. — It featured everything sports should be about, but had nothing to do with how many goals were scored.
What the second annual Shane Cormier Memorial Meltdown tournament had was nine- and 10-year-old hockey players supporting one of their own.
The tournament attracted six atom A teams from across the Maritimes, including the Northumberland Bruins from Murray River. After one of their players – 10-year-old defenceman Julien Mondor – began dealing with serious health issues, the Bruins withdrew.
“They contacted us and wanted to concentrate their funds towards him,” explained Derek Folland, a tournament organizer. “After we got off the phone, we called back and said, ‘Bring the team up, play in it and the registration will be free. Use the money ($600 tournament entry fee) to help Julien out.’”
Bruins team manager Lynsea MacKay said the gesture meant a lot to both the team and Julien.
“He’s going through a tough time with his health and he’s been sidelined from school and his friends because he’s not on the ice,” said MacKay. “It meant a lot to us to see the kids play for him. That means a lot to everybody.”
But the tournament organizers weren’t done there. They added a shootout to the schedule. Participants were charged $5 and all proceeds were donated to Julien.
“All the teams had full participation and we ended up raising $555,” noted Folland.
The tournament honours the memory of a former Kensington and Area Minor Hockey coach and board member, who passed away suddenly at the age of 43 in July 2017.
Shane coached a Kensington novice team that included his son, Oliver, in the first-ever Meltdown tournament in 2017.
“This year, we decided to change it to an atom tournament because that is where Shane’s son plays,” said Folland. “It was brought to the board that the tournament should follow Oliver all the way through his minor hockey career.”
“He’s going through a tough time with his health and he’s been sidelined from school and his friends because he’s not on the ice. It meant a lot to us to see the kids play for him. That means a lot to everybody.”
-Northumberland Bruins team manager Lynsea MacKay
Leg pain
Julien was playing hockey right up until he went to the doctor in January with a limp and a pain in his leg. An X-ray determined he had a fracture at the head of the femur.
“They didn’t know what was going on,” explained his mother, Nathalie Vendrys. “They sent us for a CT scan in Charlottetown, then they discovered his bone at the top of the femur was like it was being eaten from the inside, so it was all empty.
“They sent us right away to the IWK in Halifax, where they did an MRI and said it was an aneurysmal cyst. He had surgery two days later. They tried to scrape all the cells of the dead tissue that was infected inside.”
She said doctors installed a bone graft and installed some plates and screws.
“They don’t know what caused that, they just know it is rare for his age. Normally they see it in older patients. It went really fast. We didn’t have time to think and maybe that was a good thing.”
Now Julien and his family are playing the waiting game.
“We don’t know how long it will take for him to recover, meaning that the bone will grow and there is no residual cyst,” said Vendrys. “They scraped everything, but they are not sure everything is gone, so we have to wait around a year to see if things are growing.”
Cheers on teammates
Best of all, Julien is back in the rink cheering on his teammates. Vendrys, whose husband, Daniel Mondor, has returned to their hometown of Montreal for employment, said it’s “therapy” for Julien to attend Bruins’ games.
“It’s a must for us,” she added. “We make it a point to go even if he cannot do anything. He is there, he’s a part of it.”
When the Bruins emerged victorious in the bronze-medal game in Kensington, Folland made sure Julien joined his teammates for the post-game presentations.
When he was called to come forward to receive his medal from Oliver, it drew a thunderous cheer.
“I was excited,” said Julien, whose favourite NHL team is the Pittsburgh Penguins and his favourite player is Penguin Evgeni Malkin. “It felt like I was playing again.”
Vendrys said she cannot put into words what the support of the Bruins has meant to Julien.
“Even when he was in the hospital the team was supporting him and even when he got back everyone was asking about him and came to see him,” said Vendrys. “This is really what is keeping him going.”
Provincewide support
MacKay became emotional as she gave another example of how tight the P.E.I. hockey community is. She noted a fundraising game between the Bruins and Montague Norsemen in February that raised close to $3,000 for Julien and his family.
“We reached out to all the atom teams in both divisions, east and west, and I can’t name them all, but there were more teams that contributed than didn’t that sent donations that we put in the donation box and sent him get-well cards,” said MacKay. “It was great to see a whole division of atom teams come together to support one little boy.”
Vendrys cannot put into words what the support of the P.E.I. hockey community means.
“Since he felt that support, his morale went really up,” said Vendrys. “It helped him to accept and see that he can continue to enjoy what he likes and life doesn’t suck.”
Most importantly, the Meltdown tournament proved it’s a lot more than wins and losses.