‘We just want to play,’ — Aces booted from SEMHL

The South East Manitoba Hockey League sent shockwaves across senior hockey in the province May 4, deciding to kick out the Ste Anne Aces.

The Aces won the league championship the past three seasons after joining the SEMHL following the COVID-19 pandemic. Kevin Lansard, the team’s president and head coach, said the league’s previously established six teams teams asked all of the newer teams to leave the room during a meeting in Carman May 4 before calling them back in and letting them know the Aces were no longer welcome to play in their league.

“It’s going to take some time to sink in,” Lansard said.

“The players are pretty disappointed, the community is pretty angry and I don’t really have answers for why.”

Lansard shared the news with fans by posting a letter to the Aces Facebook page May 4.

The Ile des Chenes North Stars, Red River Wild and Ste Anne all joined the SEMHL in 2022 after the Carillon Senior Hockey League folded in the wake of COVID-19. The Aces have played senior hockey since 1965, taking a break during COVID-19, winning 18 championships over the years in various leagues.

Lansard said the teams who were removed from the meeting were expecting to all be removed from the league.

“I didn’t get to speak, there was no reason given,” Lansard said.

“There was everything thrown at the wall, but we never had illegal players, we never broke any rules. We were always under a microscope. We did feel slighted a little bit because other teams are known to have wrong addresses and stuff like that, but nothing was done about it. We were always checked, and we knew that and were fine with that. When you’re playing well and at the top, people are going to cut you down, and that’s kind of enjoyable sometimes.”

The league did not respond to a request for comment.

The SEMHL website has yet to post any news item announcing the change but by May 6 the Aces logo and team page had been removed.

The last news post on the website as of press time May 7 was a news item congratulating the Aces for winning the provincial senior championship over Killarney.

Lansard said multiple items were up for discussion to improve parity in the league at the meeting, with adding a team in Steinbach, making two divisions or even allowing the former Carillon league teams to leave on good terms and re-form their own league up for debate. Instead it was just Ste Anne getting kicked out, with Springfield’s player radius reduced from 50 km to 35 km.

“We weren’t against making it harder on us,” Lansard said.

“Obviously, it would be nice to easy, but we wanted to make sure there was somewhere for these guys to play hockey. Winning is the second part of the whole thing. Playing is the first part. We just want to play.”

Ste Anne has been powered by outstanding play from non-import players. Stars like former Montreal Canadiens defenseman Brett Lernout and former professionals Brenden Walker and Matt Bailey all live within Ste Anne’s home region, meaning they are not labelled as imports.

Lansard said if he hadn’t been booted from the meeting, he would have proposed expanding the number of import players for any team that doesn’t win a game in the previous year’s final.

The Aces were down 3-0 to the Morden Bombers in the 2023 finals, needing an own goal from the Portage Islanders in the semi-finals just to advance to the finals. After dominating the 2024 championship season front to back, they were once again against the wall in the finals this season, trailing 3-2 in the finals, and needing a last-minute goal to force overtime in game seven.

Even in the CSHL, while the Aces won the last four championships before the league suspended play, they had been trailing in each one of those series.

Lansard lamented the fact he couldn’t defend himself to the other team representatives.

“I never got to present the facts,” Lansard said.

“I was expecting to deal with a pushback… It’s kind of confusing. The word I was told was it wasn’t about us winning, but they couldn’t give another reason why.”

Lansard said while Ste Anne had one of the highest population bases and attendance figures across the league, they lagged behind when it came to sponsorship, relying on game-day ticket revenue to cover their expenses.

“I promise you, everybody’s budget is higher than ours,” Lansard said, adding last year was the first season the Aces bought sticks for their players.

“There’s a misconception, I heard a rumour we were paying guys $1,500 a game. That’s not even close. This league pays players, gives sticks buys stuff. We were pressured into a little bit of that because other teams were doing it… Players came to play for us for nothing, knowing they could get $400 a game elsewhere, and chose to come play for us for free.”

From Ste Anne’s perspective, the decision to allow other teams to continue while kicking out the Aces was devastating.

“They made it worse for us double-time, because they removed us and kept the other teams in so there’s no other league to start,” Lansard said.

“We would have had four teams, we could have added another team and been at five, just saying the possibility. But now we have no options… If they wanted to stick it to us even more, this was the best scenario possible.”

Lansard said he wasn’t giving up the fight, noting he was exploring all potential options, including an appeal to Hockey Manitoba. He claimed the Aces, North Stars and Wild were on a two-year probation after joining the league that should have ended this year, but were all still kicked out of the meeting while the vote on their potential expulsion took place.

“I just felt like the constitution wasn’t followed correctly,” Lansard said.

“That is my perspective and I think it’s important I make sure do everything I can. I owe that to everybody involved.”

Lansard added the team would have accepted continuing on probation with a reduced player area or other restrictions if it meant they got to keep playing, adding he thinks not allowing the teams in the meeting to vote on the expulsion was against the league’s constitution.

“We got beat in the boardroom,” he said.

“This is where we lost. We didn’t lose on the ice. No one wanted to try and beat us on the ice.”

The decision stung all the more for Lansard, as he drove out for an early morning meeting to Carman only to be told to leave immediately following breakfast.