New Quebec Senior Hockey Team Shows Grassroots Passion for Sport in Province

In a matchup against 51-year-old Donald Brashear, a new senior hockey team in a historic rural region east of Quebec kicked off their first season featuring the sons of a former NHLer.

BEAUPRE, QUE. – Quebec’s newest senior hockey team sprang to life here at 9:01 p.m. Friday when the puck dropped to start the first-ever regular season game of the Montagnards de Beaupre.

The opening faceoff against the Wendake Black Jack – a team captained by former NHL enforcer Donald Brashear, still big and ornery at age 51 – also marked the return of high-caliber hockey to the Cote-de-Beaupre, a historic rural region just east of Quebec City.

“It was amazing, a dream come true,” said Mathieu Penney, a 37-year-old defenseman and assistant captain with the Montagnards (or Mountaineers).

He and his brother Alex, 30, are among a half-dozen players on the Montagnards’ 20-man roster who were born and raised in the area and played youth hockey in this old cinder-block building, the Cote-de-Beaupre Arena.

The two brothers are also the sons of former NHL goalie Steve Penney, a Calder Trophy finalist who played 91 games with the Montreal Canadiens and the original Winnipeg Jets over five seasons in the 1980s. He won a Stanley Cup with the Habs in 1986. 

Mathieu Penney was a key instigator in the creation of the new Montagnards team.

“We had a senior team here years ago, and it was a lot of fun,” he said. “We wanted to bring back that vibe.”

In March, he and Jonathan Maltais, manager of the arena in Beaupre, a half-hour drive from Old Quebec, met with Dave Girard, president of the four-team, five-year-old Ligue de Hockey Senior du Lac au Fleuve.

Girard quickly endorsed the Montagnards project and added a fifth team to the league for its sixth year.

“Beaupre is a natural rival for Wendake,” said Girard, who owns one of the three league teams in the Lac St-Jean region, north of Quebec’s provincial capital.

The Black Jack’s home rink is on the Wendake Huron reserve just north of Quebec City.

“Having two teams strengthens our presence in the region,” said Girard. “Our league is all about passion for hockey.”

The LHSLF is one of three Senior AA leagues in Quebec.

The province also has one Senior AAA and one semi-pro league, the Ligue Nord-Americaine de Hockey.

Both Brashear and the Montagnards’ captain Alexandre Tremblay are playing in the LHSLF and LNAH this season. Tremblay, 44, grew up in Beaupre and played 20 years at the highest levels of junior, Canadian university and European hockey – winning championships at all three levels.

Mathieu Penney, an affable window and door salesman who played junior and senior hockey and still plays in a Sunday morning garage league with his dad and brother, led the effort to raise the $100,000 needed to get the new Montagnards up and running.

Much of that money came from the sale of a dozen corporate suites to local entrepreneurs. The town of Beaupre also put up $15,000 and is the new team’s main sponsor.

For his part, Maltais put together the administrative structure and coaching staff that will lead the team during its inaugural 16-game season.

The home opener attracted a near-capacity crowd of some 800 people, including many friends and family members of Montagnards’ players – Steve Penney among them.

Mathieu Penney, who was acting team captain Friday night (Tremblay is serving a two-game suspension), got the loudest cheers when the new team’s players were introduced.

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound defenseman also took the ceremonial faceoff against Brashear, with Maltais dropping the puck.

But it was the hulking, grey-bearded Brashear that most fans came to see.

From the get-go, he displayed the same aggressive nature that earned him 2,634 penalty minutes in 1,025 games with five NHL teams between 1993 and 2010.

Brashear led the NHL in penalty minutes in six of those seasons and remains the 15th-most penalized player in league history.

He is now one of only a few NHL veterans, including Jaromir Jagr, who is still playing competitive contact hockey in their 50s.

Playing right wing on both the Black Jack’s top line and the power-play unit, Brashear was a menacing presence throughout Friday’s game.

He skated hard in all three periods, finishing checks, crowding the front of the net and eagerly participating in after-whistle scrums, including one with Alex Penney.

Brashear also exchanged hard words and menacing looks with Mathieu Penney, who he knocked down and punched in a pre-season game between the two teams a week earlier, a 6-3 win by the Montagnards.

“Donald is in great shape, and he stands up for his teammates,” said Black Jack coach Stephane Rioux. “The guys love him.”

After Friday’s game – a mostly disjointed, fight-free affair that ended just before midnight in a 2-0 Black Jack win – Brashear declined an invitation to talk about his ongoing hockey career.

“I’m having fun – let’s leave it at that,” he said.

Though disappointed with the final score, Mathieu Penney said the game was a huge win for local players and hockey fans.

“We didn’t play our best, and we were missing some key players,” he said. “But we couldn’t be happier with the turnout and the ambiance. It was a real happening.”