SPORTS FLASHBACK 2016: Priest postpones mass while Habs win 1956 Carillon Cup

A record-breaking crowd of more than 600 turned out to watch La Broquerie skate circles around the Steinbach Huskies, on the way to the 1956 Carillon Hockey League Championship and the coveted Prefontaine Cup that went with it. The game was played the Saturday night of the Easter weekend and La Broquerie priest Father Leon Roy rescheduled the start of a 9 p.m. service until well after the game was over.

Bob Wiebe scored for the Huskies in the second period and Gordon Kreutzer got one for Steinbach in the third, but goals by Pierre Pelletier, Roland Gauthier, Paul Taillefer and two by Adelard Pelletier, gave La Broquerie the margin of victory in the fifth game of the hard-fought final series.

It was an uphill battle for La Broquerie since the playoffs began, narrowly getting past Grunthal with six goals in the last 10 minutes to win the deciding game of the semi-finals 8-6.

After the Habs won the first two games of the finals, Steinbach came back to win the next two to force a fifth game during the Easter weekend.

With five minutes left in the final game, La Broquerie fans broke out hundreds of paper pennants, cheering their team on. The pennants had been ready since the third game and had been saved for this moment of glory for the home team.

That’s the way it was reported in The Carillon News, 60 years ago, but a pair of pretty good La Broquerie goaltenders don’t need faded newspaper clippings to remind them of the game. Edouard Bonin and Louis Balcaen, both in their 70s, remember it like it was yesterday.

Bonin remembers the game because he was in the nets at the time. Balcaen remembers the game because he wasn’t. He said he was happy to have been relieved of the responsibility as a 14-year-old.

“At the last minute, there was some question of my eligibility, and although it was a disappointment for family and friends, I was happy I didn’t have to play in that game.”

Edouard Bonin arrived at the rink just in time to go into the nets for the home team and stopped all but two shots on the way to the victory.

Ed Bonin, who will be 77 in February, grew up in La Broquerie and after a brief stint at St Boniface College, joined the Air Force. During his military career, he entered the priesthood and is now known as Father Edouard Bonin, a retired Roman Catholic priest.

Bonin picks out the jubilant faces of his teammates in that faded newspaper clipping of April 6, 1956.

“That’s Adrien Degagne and me, and Paul Taillefer with the trophy, Roland Gauthier, and in the back there’s Gerald Freynet, Raymond Fournier, Anita Bedard…what’s she doing there?….and Joseph Gagnon and Paul Nadeau.”

He remembers just how important the Carillon Hockey League championship was back in 1956. The La Broquerie boys won the cup the Saturday night of the Easter Vigil, he said. The local parish priest, Father Leon Roy, delayed the Saturday night mass, scheduled to start at 9 p.m. until well after the game was over, announcing the La Broquerie boys had beaten the Steinbachers.

Father Bonin is much happier talking baseball these days, but when he and Louis Balcaen get together there is bound to be the odd hockey story thrown in, as well.

And Louis Balcaen and Father Bonin get together often, for the 77-year-old priest has been talked out of retirement to act as “moderator of services” at La Broquerie, St Labre and Woodridge. Father Bonin is slated to fill his current role at least until August, but all three church communities are hoping he will stay longer.

Father Bonin stays at the La Broquerie rectory on the weekend, conducts mass at La Broquerie every Saturday evening and Sunday morning and has services at St Labre and Woodridge alternate Sundays.

Balcaen, as part of his many parish activities, takes a turn driving the priest to services at St Labre and Woodridge. Truth be told, Father Bonin says he enjoys the company, but would rather give Louis a ride in his new car.