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Home > Articles > Intercollegiate Sport > This time the Carr-Harris Cup game matters for everyone
This time the Carr-Harris Cup game matters for everyone
Posted: February 4th, 2014 @ 4:16pm
By CLAUDE SCILLEY
It hasn't always been the case that the annual Carr-Harris Cup hockey match has mattered to both of its participants.
This time, it does.
The Queen's Golden Gaels, in the midst of their best season in 30 years, have designs on first place in the East division of Ontario University Athletics. That aspiration is lifeless without a victory Thursday night.
For the Royal Military College Paladins, who still find themselves with a chance to catch the division's final playoff berth, a win Thursday means all the fingertips can continue to cling to the edge of the post-season precipice.
"The rivalry goes without saying," said RMC coach Adam Shell, of the next renewal of an exchange that had its beginning 128 years ago on a frozen waterfront a long dump-in from Thursday's venue, but it helps that it still has meaning beyond pride and bragging rights.
"It helps our players to focus a little bit more on the game and a little bit less on the surroundings," Shell said. "When it doesn't have as much meaning you sort of get lost in a bit of the show. This will help our guys focus on the task at hand, which is we need to win the game."
At a news conference Tuesday, both coaches spoke of the spectacle the Carr-Harris game has become since it moved to the K-Rock Centre.
"It's a great opportunity to showcase (university hockey) to the community," Queen's coach Brett Gibson said. "I know our players are excited because they'll get more than their girlfriends and their moms at the game.
"It really brings an atmosphere where both teams can celebrate their successes and the rivalry."
Ultimately, though, the prospect of being supported by the school's band, a crowd bigger than all your other crowds combined and being listed as the marquee event on the opening day of the city's annual winter carnival, Feb Fest, is secondary to the significance of the game.
"If we don't win this game we don't have an opportunity at first place," Gibson said. "I think we've done great things this year - but to reach that pinnacle of the McGills and Three Rivers of the world, Carr-Harris aside, we need the two points. Our guys know that."
The peripheral stuff that attaches to this game won't matter to the players, RMC's Colin Cook said.
"I don't think it's a distraction," he said, "and I honestly don't think it adds much because this game always means a lot to us, regardless. Obviously there's a greater ramification if we do win this. That two points would be huge for us in our final push to the playoffs, but I really don't think it's going to have a massive effect on how the guys prepare because even if we were already mathematically eliminated it would mean just as much.
"That's the difference between the West Point game and Carr-Harris. Carr-Harris is against Queen's, it's a league game, it has impact on the standings. It's an extra thing you're playing for, not just a trophy and a photo op."
Queen's captain Corey Bureau said games with RMC are never easy.
"They play a tough game. It always seems to turn into a bit more of a battle than we would expect. They probably work as hard as any team in the league but we expect it. It's such a close rivalry. We kind of know each other around town. We're playing not only for the two points but for pride as well.
"It can be easy to get distracted by all the things surrounding the games in the rivalry but it definitely adds to the intensity. It's good if we're able to handle our emotions. We're allowed to be excited, we're allowed to be intense, but we can't cross the line."
Cook said when he was being recruited to come to RMC, the spectre of the Carr-Harris game was a selling point.
"There's not many opportunities in the CIS to play on a big stage," he said. "There aren't a lot of these special games. We're really fortunate to be part of such an old rivalry that has this history and carries with it the opportunity to play in a special game.
"It's something the guys look forward to."
Cook said the history surrounding the RMC program - cadets are said to have been part of the first organized game in the history of the sport - wasn't a driving motivator in his choosing to attend RMC, but it's something of which he's become aware.
"The hockey history in Kingston is a really cool thing to be a part of," he said, "so once I discovered it more, it definitely drew me in."
Which is no small feat for someone from Halifax who went to school in Windsor, N.S., the other place laying claim to being the birthplace of hockey.
"I played on Long Pond," Cook said. "Both birthplaces. It's an interesting debate."
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