New era begins tonight for hockey Aigles Bleus
Published Friday October 16th, 2009
Moncton hosts St. Thomas in season opener tonight
During his three-year standout career with the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus, Serge Bourgeois suited up for many big games.
Maybe none, though, bigger than tonight.
Bourgeois, a former all-star defenceman, makes his regular season head coaching debut tonight when the Aigles Bleus host the St. Thomas Tommies in their Atlantic University Sport men's hockey conference opener at 7 p.m. at renovated J.-Louis-Lévesque Arena.
"I always knew this would be a great job, but I never really thought it would be me doing it," said Bourgeois, an assistant on Bob Mongrain's coaching staff for the past three seasons before getting promoted to the top job last spring when Mongrain resigned to coach in the Swiss Pro League.
"I'm a homegrown guy. I come from St-Paul, which isn't too far away. I used to come watch games when I was younger, then I played with the program and now I'm the coach of the program. This has always been a very special place for me."
Bourgeois, 34, is the 12th head coach of the storied team that has won four Canadian championships.
Now, it's down to business.
Moncton returns a large chunk of last season's team, which had an up-and-down regular season (16-8-4 for third place) before falling to the Saint Mary's Huskies in four games in a best-of-five AUS semifinal.
Bourgeois has many familiar faces in his new role. Seventeen players are back from last season and two more -- forward Mathieu Bétournay and defenceman Carl McLean -- return for their fifth season after taking last year off.
"Whenever you're starting a year, you want to win and you're thinking championship. I'm looking at getting into the playoffs for sure and I think we're going to be competitive," said Bourgeois, who played for the Aigles Bleus from 1996-99 and coached the Moncton Beavers (now Dieppe Commandos) in the Maritime Junior A Hockey League before joining Mongrain's staff.
"I think we'll have a chance to win every game if we play right. If we play bad, we're not going to win at all. The league is so tight that you're going to be in a battle every night."
Captain and all-star forward Pierre-André Bureau, who led Moncton with 14 goals and 33 points last season, is reunited with former linemate Bétournay. They'll skate with sophomore Marc-André Côté.
Veteran centre Ian Girard, who had 30 points last year, will be counted on for offence again and so will second-year forwards Dean Ouellet, a prized recruit a year ago who came through with 30 points, Rémi Gautreau, Francis Marchard, Guillaume Parenteau and Côté.
"You don't want to put the sophomore jinx on them, but a lot of those guys had a good year last year and it's going to be important for them to match that or be a little bit better," Bourgeois said.
Rugged forwards Charles Bergeron, Mathieu Bérubé and Alexandre Soucy give the team a physical presence up front.
The Aigles Bleus blueline features Jean-Philippe Paquet, named to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport all-rookie team after recording 21 points last season, Jules Melanson, Mathieu Richard, Mathieu Labrie and McLean. Rookie Mathieu Bolduc, coming off a five-year career in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, is expected to play a big role immediately.
"We wanted to get bigger and more mobile on defence and Bolduc helps us do that," said Bourgeois. "He's a really good defenceman. He's mean and tough and fits in right away."
Goaltender Kevin Lachance, a second-team all-Canadian last season with an 11-7 regular-season record and 3.13 goals-against average, is back and so is backup Pierre-Alexandre Marion.
Other recruits include forwards Pier-Alexandre Poulin of the Commandos and Bruno Gosselin of the Woodstock Slammers and defencemen Christopher Rodrigue and Mathieu LeBlanc of the Commandos.
Not returning are forwards Nicolas Laplante and Rémi Doucet and defencemen Christian Brideau and Billy Bezeau.
Ouellet (eye) is expected to miss the first couple weeks of the season.
Moncton visits the defending Canadian champion University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds tomorrow in Fredericton.
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