The 6th Heritage Classic was held on January 21, at the Downtown Community Arena: A tournament between the Centurions, student teams from Campus Saint-Jean (CSJ), and the Alumni, teams made up of former students from the Francophone university.
Given the popularity of the event, organizers had decided to maintain the same formula that was used last year, i.e. two games. The team that won the first game gave their team the privilege of starting the second game with a 1‑0 lead.
It must be said that the Centurions came out hard in that first game, buzzing around the Alumni net and goaltender Sylvain Larochelle. That sustained pressure brought results when Nathan Kerr opened the scoring in the 4th minute of play.
At 13 minutes, Éric Bergeron was left alone in the slot and doubled his team's lead on a pass from Nathan Kerry from behind the net.
Not giving up, the Alumni pulled themselves together and, at 17 minutes, Albert Nolette closed the gap to 2-1 on a rebound from a shot by Mario Giguère. Then, two minutes later, the Alumni Captain, Jean-Daniel Tremblay, tied things up by getting around Alumni Captain Keegan Paterson.
At the 22-minute mark, Nathan Kerr gave his team back the lead with his second goal of the game. However, at 25 minutes, Samuel Viau tied things up again on a play from Sam Rokeby.
The first period ended with the teams tied 3-3. When play resumed in the second period, Nathan Kerr completed his hat trick… But once again, the Alumni tied the score on a beautiful individual play by Laurier Amyotte, who carried the puck the length of the ice to score.
At the 18-minute mark, the Centurions went ahead for the fourth time in the game. The seeing-eye shot from the point by Hebert Forcade surprised the Alumni goalie.
A rarity in the Classic, the referee in the first game, Mitch Byrt, called a penalty on Hebert Forcade for tripping an opposing player. However, it was the Centurions who took advantage of the opportunity to score. The shorthanded goal was scored by Nathan Kerr, his fourth of the game, on a pass from Éric Bergeron.
The first game ended with a score of 6-4.
Second game
The second Centurions team thus began the second game with a 1-0 lead.
Both teams began the game with tight and intense play. It took 18 minutes before one of the teams scored, when Zavier Berti gave the Centurions a 2-0 lead, skillfully outplaying goalie Nate Kohlert.
A few minutes later, Berti scored again to put the Centurions up 3-0, completing a play by Tim Johnson and Caleb Beckman.
Before the first period ended, Marc Potvin was given a penalty for holding an opposing player's stick.
Although the Centurions were unable to capitalize on that power play, they nonetheless scored at the start of the second period, when Captain Tim Johnson put the Centurions up 4-0 on a pass from Zach Haynes.
At 9 minutes, Justin Mahé put the Alumni on the board, on a pass from Owen Nicholson and Gabriel Généreux. However, at 13 minutes, Anthony Kapelke completed a play from Éric Gratton to put the Centurions up 5-1.
The Alumni gave it their all at the end of the game, scoring two quick goals at 27 and 29 minutes. The first was scored by Joël Lefebvre, on a play from Justin Mahé and Owen Nicholson, followed by a goal by Cameron LaRocque. Braydon Wells got an assist on that goal.
The Alumni continued to pressure, but goalie Jacob Bilodeau closed the door to help the Centurions win a second Heritage Classic in three years!
Banquet
The games were followed by the traditional banquet. At that event, the stars of the tournament were named: Nathan Kerr and Zavier Berti for the Centurions and Jean-Daniel Tremblay and Joël Lefebvre for the Alumni.
It must be noted that two other events that took place in conjunction with the Classic were a big success: the AUFSJ Winter Festival, held on the evening of January 20, and the Players' Breakfast, which took place on the morning of the games!