Perth’s alumni and students connect during ice hockey scrimmages

Students and alumni gathered together for an ice hockey scrimmage game on Feb. 13 at the Perth & District Community Centre arena.

To participants, the scrimmages have become a part of their weekly routine and a way to connect with fellow students and alumni in the community.

“It’s good to just keep in contact with the college and some of the students,” said Evan Lennon.

Lennon is a heritage and carpentry alumni who has been playing in the weekly scrimmages since he was a student. After graduating four years ago, he shows up almost every week to play.

The arena is reserved for the Algonquin College group every Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. but sometimes the students from a nearby high school join in.

“It’s a good way to come up and have a good skate,” said Lennon.

The Students’ Association has been hosting games for years. This season’s scrimmages have been opened to Algonquin College since Sept. 19, and will run until Mar. 29.

Before the pandemic, there used to be a larger amount of people showing up to play; most of them being alumni. Now there’s a maximum of 10 players.

Eight men attended, one of them was a goalie which resulted in a three against four man game where all players shoots at the same goalie.

In scrimmage rules, once an opposing team touches the puck, they must skate to the middle of the arena with the puck to ‘clear’ it before they can attack.

“We’re missing a few guys, usually we have two goalies,” said William Inoue, a heritage and carpentry student at the Perth campus. “We tend to get 10-ish players.”

The players took around 20 minutes to warm up, shooting at either a goalie or empty net, practicing skill moves and skating around. For the rest of the hour, they played scrimmage ice hockey.

“We just go by jersey colour. It’s just pickup so it’s just for fun,” said Inoue about the method of selecting teams.

Kyle Cobus was the goalie for the game. He is a heritage and carpentry student at the Perth campus of Algonquin College.

“[I’m] just playing hockey, I come out every Tuesday,” said Cobus, he’s attended almost every game since the season started. “I played a good game.”

Noah Leroux is another alumni comes out to play almost every week when he is not working. Like Lennon, he started playing as a student but continued to show up after graduating.

“Kyle was pretty on play today,” said Leroux, referring to the goalie. “He’s doing really well, he’s improving quite a bit.”

The Perth Student Association also hosts free skate on Thursdays from 4 to 5 p.m.

The next scrimmage ice hockey game is Tuesday, Feb. 20, from 5 to 6 p.m.