Fleet school goaltender honoured with Sportsmanship Award

CPO2 Ken Simoneau of Naval Fleet School (Pacific) receives the CAF Old Timer’s National Hockey Championship Sportsmanship Award from Jessica Taillefer. Photos by CFB Borden Base Imaging

Peter Mallett, Staff Writer ~

Despite just one game win at this year’s CAF Old Timers National Hockey Championships, the Pacific Region’s Comox Totems team still scooped a big award – the Sportsmanship Award for goaltender CPO2 Ken Simoneau of Naval Fleet School (Pacific).

“It was certainly a surprise to receive this award,” said CPO2 Simoneau, who works as a Primary Leadership Qualification Instructor. “Nobody said anything to me about being named for this honour prior to the awards ceremony at the conclusion of the tournament; so I was really taken aback when my name was called.”

He normally tends goal for the CFB Esquimalt’s Tritons, who won the regional battle against Comox but did not have enough players to send to Nationals. Four Esquimalt players suited up for Comox Totems to represent the Pacific Region, including MWO Paul MacQueen, 443 Helicopter Squadron; MS Brett Poulin; Base Information Services; and MCpl Derek Scott, Canadian Fleet Pacific.

National tournament play took place Feb. 18 to 22 at CFB Borden.

CPO2 Simoneau also won his team’s Most Valuable Player Award after capturing single-game MVP honours in two of his team’s four games.

The Pacific Region managed to defeat the Atlantic Region’s representative 2-1 in a shootout, but dropped their other three games to Quebec (CFB Valcartier) 8-1, Ontario (CFB Trenton) 5-1 and the Prairie Region (CFB Edmonton) 1-0. “The end result was not exactly what we wanted, especially after coming so close to moving on to the semi-final round,” said CPO2 Simoneau. “It’s just so tough and competitive playing at the national level, and overall I think the team did well if you take into account we were short on the bench throughout and had some key players missing due to injuries and operational requirements.”

Heading into this year’s nationals the Valcartier Lions were three-time winners of the title after defeating the Petawawa Stags 5-1 in last year’s championship, held at Wurtele Arena in March 2016.  But the Lions from Valcartier had their title snatched, falling 7-4 to the 8 Wing Flyers from Trenton in this year’s championship game on Feb. 22, with CWO Richard Plante of Trenton winning the tournament MVP award.