“We’ve been saying underdogs are hungry dogs and hungry dogs get to the bowl first”
In 2004, an undersized centre from Hull captained the St. Francis Xavier University X-Men hockey team to the Canadian national championship. In June of 2015, his playing career now over after stints in the ECHL and Germany, he interviewed for the head coaching position of the University of Ottawa men’s team.
Now two days removed from his 46th birthday, still undersized standing in the media scrum in the depths of TD Place, Patrick Grandmaître remembers sitting across the table from program alumnus and former longtime Ottawa Senators coach Jacques Martin in that interview.
The hockey program had been suspended at that point since March of the previous season after sexual assault allegations and later charges were laid against two of the program’s players. It would resume more than two years later in 2016-17 with an entirely fresh set of players and staff, led by Grandmaître.
“I’ve never not been supported,” said Grandmaître after Saturday’s semifinal win over TMU, describing the university, program alumni, and everyone else who surrounds the program as “tremendous.”
“I remember doing my job interview and [Martin] was in there, and I told him we’re going to win one within eight years. So I’m two years behind,” added Grandmaître, noting that the 2020 berth in a nationals that never ended up being played due to COVID came ahead of schedule.
The Gee-Gees were never supposed to make it to Saturday. They had known they were nationals-bound since February 2023 and had used that time to attract a handful of talented major junior recruits to bolster the program for the 2024-25 season, including Andrew Belchamber, Zach Giroux, Alexis Bonefon, and Mitch Martin.
But after a challenging, injury-filled season and a two-game sweep at the hands of the Queen’s Gaels in the OUA semifinals, the Gee-Gees had been thrown to the wolves. Looming on Thursday was a date with the top seed in the U Cup’s quarterfinals: the back-to-back reigning national champion UNB Reds.
The Gee-Gees improbably handed the Reds their third loss of the season on Thursday night at TD Place, during a game scheduled for 7 p.m. that began after 9 p.m. following a quintuple-overtime marathon between the Mount Royal Cougars and TMU Bold.
It was those same Bold who greeted the Gee-Gees in the national semifinals. TMU was coming off two losses in the national semifinals in three seasons and was still searching for the program’s first-ever medal at the U Cup. They would enter the tournament as the four-seed after an OUA final loss to the Concordia Stingers.
With a roster oozing with U Cup experience, poise was expected to be the last thing missing of the Bold during Saturday’s 1 p.m. semifinal against the hosts. But midway through the first period, third-year Bold winger William Portokalis would snow Gees netminder Franky Lapenna after he covered the puck, earning the hosts their first powerplay of the afternoon.
The unnecessary penalty put the Gees’ 23.3 per cent power play to work, a unit that had scored the second most power play goals in the OUA during the regular season.
Standing on the top of the right circle just over a minute into the man-advantage, it was the rookie Martin who took a feed from St. FX transfer Brandon Clavelle and wired a one-timer off of the back bar behind Bold netminder Kai Edmonds’ outstretched blocker to give the Gees an early lead.
Martin wasn’t exactly supposed to be on the ice at TD Place either on Saturday. Born with a defective aortic valve, the Sudbury native was forced to undergo open-heart surgery this past October if he wished to remain playing hockey beyond his days with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers.
Though the surgery “fixed everything,” it left him from joining the Gees until after Christmas. The winger got into just eight regular-season games before the OUA playoffs, scoring four goals and adding two assists.
The Bold would rally to grab a lead of their own via two goals in under two minutes in the second period (Jordan D’Intino and Ian Martin), but under 48 hours from playing that five-overtime marathon, huge hits from a Gees forecheck that included Tommy Bouchard, Charles-Antoine Roy, and Martin defined the game and wore down the Bold.
“Our main thing was ‘get on them early’,” said Martin after the game, noting that the team was well aware the Bold had played the equivalent of three games of hockey two nights prior. “Make them pay the full price for going back and getting pucks … I think once the game got going we did a pretty good job of that.”
Veteran Gees winger Bradley Chenier would take a feed from Belchamber under a minute after Martin’s goal and wire home his first of the tournament. Five minutes after that, second-year winger Vincent Labelle would redirect a David Lafrance shot-pass on net, fooling Edmonds and regaining the lead for the Gees.
Roy, a fourth-year winger completing his master’s in engineering, would pick up the secondary assist on both goals. Although Grandmaître gave the team’s celebratory cowboy hat to Martin, the game’s puck was given to Roy.
“This was his best game in five years,” said Grandmaître. “He contributed in all phases, and he created a couple of the things that led to those important goals, so really happy for him.”
Hailing from Gatineau, Roy was more familiar with the University of Ottawa than most when choosing to come play across the river for the Gee-Gees. “Home-ice advantage is a real thing,” said Roy after the game.
“I think we’re seeing it right now. Honestly, the crowd has been amazing, they’re in the game, even though we had a little rough patch in the third. They were still there to cheer for us, honestly, the fans have been amazing.”
The aforementioned rough patch in the third induced a late tying goal from TMU rookie winger Tyler Savard (son of former Boston Bruin Marc Savard). But in the dying minutes of the game, it was Martin who would pick up a rebound and wire home his second of the game into an empty cage, giving the Gees a late lead that would prove insurmountable for the Bold.
For Roy, who started with the program in 2021 — the same year Martin started his three-year major junior career with the Rangers — seeing this recruiting class was special.
“For us, even the older guys, we were extremely excited, we knew [nationals] was coming up, you know, it’s just refreshing to see them, and they’re already pushing and they want to win also, so it’s extremely encouraging.”
Embracing the underdog mentality, the team has been wearing custom t-shirts adorned with a photo of Rich Strike — 2022’s Kentucky Derby winning horse that entered the race at 80-1 odds — around the rink. Before the tournament, the team’s digital media coordinator Nathan Pavao tapped Aerosmith’s “Dream On” as the team’s weekend anthem.
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“No one really had us [to win] … we’ve been saying underdogs are hungry dogs and hungry dogs get to the bowl first,” said Martin as his postgame press conference concluded.
The Gee-Gees will play the winner of Saturday night’s Concordia/Saskatchewan semifinal for a chance at gold on Sunday at 5 p.m. at TD Place.
