2008 St. Augustine Hockey

2008 St. Augustine Hockey

On the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of february there will be a traditional mens hockey tournament that will be held in St.Augustine on the Lower North Shore of Quebec. A tradition that is nearly sixty years old unites teams and villages from Blanc Sablon to Chevery. People traveling by snowmobile from as far as 200 km away to a small village with a population of 850 people. St.Augustine which is located in the center of the coast normally has a large turnout for their tournaments and this year will be no exception. There will be a company team coming from Toronto Ontario this year with some noticable names on their roster. The company Underground Services Ltd. has in their line-up players like John Druce ( NHL career 12 years, Washington Capitals), Gilbert Dionne (NHL career 3 years Montreal Canadiens), Rick Natress (NHL career 13 years), Craig Muni (NHL career14 years) Jim Thompson (NHL career 10 years) Tom Fergus (NHL career 8 years) and John Graham (NYI training camp). And to top it all of the coach for this team will be Craig Patrick previous manager of the Pittsburg Penguins who has won 2 stanley cups under his management. This surely will be an exciting weekend

Update and photos from Nicholas Shattler Feb 8th:

The Dream Team has arrived and were greeted by the village of St.Augustine with open arms. Many thanks going out to Derrick Martin Vice President of USL for convincing these former NHL players to come to our small community and to play in our hockey tournament, and also to the former NHL hockey players, they made our dreams come true . Last night was a night to relax and have fun for the former NHLers, They played some exibition hockey with the local fun league players from St.Augustine,La Tabatierre and Pakua Shipi and also with the St.Augustine Devils. They also took time out to take photos with our minor hockey teams. The official tournament starts tonight at 5:00 pm. From my perspective our local teams in the A division will have a tough time competing against the Dream Team, but i'm sure they will not go down with-out a fight.I will keep you informed as the tournament progresses.

Update and photos from Nicholas Shattler Feb 10th:

It's been a fabilious 2 days of hockey so far in St.Augustine. Our Raiders team played the Blanc Sablon Storm on friday and won and USL played the St.Pauls kings and they won also. The NHLers took the day to do some snowmobiling and ate some of our traditional foods like scallop,crab and seal, these fine bunch of lads had to be keep busy and fed well, it was a tactic of ours to try and slow them down on the ice. It wasn't working.One can only appreciate what it takes to become a superstar in the NHL after watching these guys in action, even though they are retired they can still show us locals a bit of their talents.On the ice they are superstars off the ice they are great ambassadors to the sport. I haven't seen a more kind, generous, friendly group of gentlemen. I'm sure pratically everyone will go home this week-end with their own unique experience with the NHLers whether it be a photo,a story,an autograph or just an introduction, for they introduce themselves to everyone. What a great bunch of guys. On saturday the hockey was even better. Paqua Shipi played the harrington islanders, St.Augustine Devils played the Chiefs and the Chevery River Rats played the Bullets.Once again the St.Augustine Raiders played the Kings and won and the USL team played the Storm and won. It seemed as if the USL team were gonna coast through all of our local teams without much opposition.There was alot of garble or preditions for the upcoming game with the USL team and our Raiders, in the hall prior to the game you could feel the anticipation.The Storm faced off with the Kings first and it was a great game. The Storm won. At 9:30 the USL Raiders game started ,the Raiders came out flying 1 goal, 2 goals, 3 goals were we dreaming, it seemed as if the Raiders had rockets attached to their skates they played better than any game prior to this one. The USL team answered back with 3 goals of their own. Midway in the 3rd USL went ahead 4-3, the Raiders came on strong but could not tie it up. Congradulations to our Raiders for giving the fans such a super game.photos to follow.

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