Hockey heroes face off in Iqaluit fundraiser

NHL and other hockey heroes hit the ice in Iqaluit in the hard-hitting Nunavut Northern Alumni Classic in front of 900 fans at the Arctic Winter Games Arena on Saturday.

Joe Thornton, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, takes control of the puck in the All Stars’ end during the second period of the Nunavut Northern Alumni Classic at Iqaluit’s Arctic Winter Games Arena on Saturday. (Photo by Daron Letts)

“I thought I lost my teeth out there,” former Toronto Maple Leaf Joe Thornton, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, said in a post-game interview.

The fundraising match was organized by the Ontario-based Hockey Helps the Homeless. That charity brought 22 former NHLers, an Olympian and PWHL players to Nunavut’s capital for a three-day weekend of hockey events.

Its first Nunavut event raised $250,000 for the Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre and the Annauma Community Foundation.

“Once upon a time I became homeless and so I’ve always really had a heart for the homeless,” said volunteer ticket-taker Rebecca Racz.

The money was raised through tickets to the alumni game, a $250-per-person gala Saturday night, sponsorships and fees paid by six people who experienced the weekend alongside the players in what the charity called a four-day fantasy camp.

“To bring this game to our little town like this is pretty exciting,” said lifelong Leafs fan Michael Murphy, one of many in the crowd sporting his team’s colours.

Lifelong Toronto Maple Leafs fan Michael Murphy shows his colours at the Nunavut Northern Alumni Classic charity game at Iqaluit’s Arctic Winter Games Arena on Saturday. He was one of many in the crowd sporting a Maple Leafs jersey. He used to watch the team growing up in Toronto in the 1970s, often sitting next to his dad at centre ice at Maple Leaf Gardens. (Photo by Daron Letts)

Jordin Tootoo, the first Inuk to play in the NHL, captained the Hockey Helps the Homeless All Stars — or Stars — whose bench was stacked with fellow retired NHL players, Olympic medallist Sami Jo Small, a member of the Canadian women’s team that won gold at the 2002 Winter Games, and the PWHL’s Victoria Bach.

They faced the Maple Leafs Alumni, led by Thornton and made up of former pros who once skated for Toronto, as well as Kalley Armstrong, a First Nations coach, former PWHL player and former Harvard University captain.

The Leafs Alumni squad won 7-6.

“Wow, what a time. What a time,” repeated former Montreal Canadiens left winger Terry Ryan, speaking in a Newfoundland brogue, shaking his head after losing to the Alumni.

“That was the fastest Alumni game that I’ve ever been in,” he said.

Fans lined the rink in a packed semi-circle. The crowd was dotted with yellow and blue Arctic Winter Games jackets, worn by participants at the event in Whitehorse earlier this month. Many clacked noisemakers handed out before the game.

Tootoo, who played 723 NHL games, won the first faceoff, but the Stars’ defence struggled to pass the puck out of their end early in the first minute.

Alumni forward Dale McCourt took it and slipped it past the Stars’ goalie, former Montreal Canadien Joey MacDonald, to get on the scoreboard.

Tootoo tied it two minutes later with the home team’s first goal.

Aaron Asham — a Métis player with 15 seasons in the NHL — scored the Stars’ second goal.

Almuni’s Wayne Primeau — a 15-year NHL veteran with Toronto — tied it, 2-2.

Asham thudded into the boards in the Alumni end, earning the first empathetic “ooooh” from the audience.

With two minutes left in the opening period, Asham hammered back at the Alumni goal. Tootoo took aim, too, but the buzzer blared to end the first period.

From there, the script deviated from traditional rules with a five-player shootout tucked in between the first two periods.

Alumni scored twice, Stars once in the shootout. So the Alumni started the second, and final, period ahead 4-3.

The Alumni went on to win 7-6.

“As a lifelong hockey fan and hockey player, it’s great to see the appreciation for hockey and to see the NHLers here,” said Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed, in a mid-game interview.

“People that we grew up watching on TV who have taken time out of their lives to come and share this experience with us.”

The Inuit leader was in Iqaluit to suit up Sunday for the fourth annual Tea and Bannock Game, usually held in Ottawa, and pitting an ITK squad against players representing another Indigenous organization.

This year, ITK took on the Mississaugas from Credit First Nation in southern Ontario. ITK defeated the Mississaugas 10-9.

Hockey Helps the Homeless added to the hockey weekend with screenings of Tootoo, a 2024 documentary about the hockey star, who played for the Nashville Predators and three other teams in a 13-season career. The film was screened three times at the Astro Theatre over the weekend.

“I think it’s mandatory viewing for all Canadians, especially students,” said Ryan, who viewed his teammate’s documentary for the first time on Friday evening. ”Quote me on that.”