ANTIGONISH, N.S. — In his final year of junior hockey eligibility, first-year St. F.X. X-Men goaltender Chase Marchand made a name for himself, on a national level, by leading his Rouyn-Noranda Huskies to a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League title, in a record-setting performance (zero goals in 223 minutes), and into the Memorial Cup final against a star-studded London Knights squad.
Marchand, from Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia, and the Huskies would lose the national final, 3-2 in overtime, to the Knights who were led by Toronto Maple Leafs rookie sensation Mitch Marner and first-year Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk, the OT hero, as well as other highly regarded prospects.
It concluded an interesting junior career for Marchand who, after being named 2011-12 Nova Scotia Major Midget Hockey League most valuable player as a member of the Cole Harbour Wolfpack, had stops in the Maritime Hockey League (Amherst), the Ontario Hockey League (Mississauga) as well as with the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (the team that drafted him) and Victoriaville Tigres, before landing in Rouyn-Noranda.
Talking to Casket Feb. 20, after his X-Men swept their first-round playoff series versus the Université de Moncton Aigles Bleus, Marchand talked about his twisting path to success with the 2015-16 Huskies.
“It can be a long process in hockey,” Marchand, the cousin of Boston Bruins star Brad Marchand and former St. Mary’s Huskies forward Jeff Marchand, said.
“As a goalie, it takes longer to develop so you just have to take it one step at a time. How I developed, mostly, was learning from what I did wrong and I did a lot of things wrong, so I had a lot to move forward with,” he added, with a chuckle.
“With the process, you just have to be patient. You can’t get frustrated, you just have to keep working hard every day and good things will happen.”
Good things really started to happen for Marchand as he established himself with the Tigres in 2014-15.
“Victoriaville gave me my first real opportunity,” he said, adding, quickly, gratitude towards the team who drafted him.
“Cape Breton gave me an opportunity too, because I dreamed of playing in the ‘Q’ ever since I was really young. When I had the chance, I tried to capture it as best I could, so it was tough to get sent home at Christmas time when I was there. But, I felt, I was getting a second chance when I went to Victoriaville and it worked out great. They gave me a chance and I just tried to do as well as I could.”
When the powerful Huskies were looking for goaltending depth, they signed Marchand and his dream season began.
“I was extremely lucky just to get the chance to be picked up by them,” he said.
“It was a great team to fall into; they had an unbelievable coaching staff and group of players who just knew how to win hockey games and know how to get better. Everyone was so dedicated to buying into the system and doing everything they could to win, it was easy to play for them and get better. “I had a goalie coach who was actually a goalie here at St. F.X. (Joey Perricone); he would do anything to help me get better. I never really had anything like that, where the coaches and players would do anything just to get better and win hockey games.
“When you have that, it’s the opposite of the negative snowball effect where things get worse, it’s everything getting better … it helps correct any mistakes that are going on, it was perfect.”
Winning a title for the organization and community was special, Marchand said.
“We had great fans,” he said.
“The rink is not huge but it was packed every game for the playoffs, and it was unbelievable, when we won it … the crowd was going crazy. It [the rink] was still full 45-minutes after the game, just everyone screaming. It was really cool to have support like that in a smaller town, which had never won it. It was great to win for them and give them a chance to have a championship.”
And now he is looking to bring the same feeling to St. F.X. and Antigonish. Marchand talked about coming to the university.
“I had been talking to [coach Brad Peddle] since early last year,” he said. “I’ve always liked St. F.X., since I was young. I felt it was a school for leaders and one that has a lot of history.
“I didn’t get very many other offers from other Maritime schools but this is the one I was most interested in anyway, so I was excited about that. I didn’t really worry about other schools; I always wanted to come to St. F.X. and now that I’m here, it’s everything I was hoping for.”
Fans who have seen Marchand win, while watching his amazing playoff run last year or this season at the Keating Centre, may have noticed the way he salutes the sky just before joining in with his teammates’ victory celebration.
“I’m not too religious but I had a brother [Cole] who passed away five years ago, and I believe that, in spirit, he is watching down on us,” Marchand said.
“So I like to salute him because he didn’t have the opportunity to be on this earth long enough to enjoy playing hockey, as long as I have, and stuff like that so, I know if we win, I’ll give him a salute because maybe he helped me out … a shot that hit the post or something.
“It helps me with my mindset,” he added.
