The Carnegie Initiative for Inclusion and Acceptance in Hockey and Canadian Blind Hockey are thrilled to partner together and invite you to witness the first-ever Disability Hockey Skills Competition and Carnegie Cup Elite Blind Hockey Series. Whether you are experiencing the event in-person in Toronto or enjoying the live web broadcast at home, welcome the 2023 Carnegie Cup during Hockey Day in Canada weekend.
All games are free and open to the public to attend. You can also watch live on the Canadian Blind Hockey YouTube Channel.
CARNEGIE CUP SCHEDULE & LOCATION
Mattamy Athletic Centre
50 Carlton St. Toronto ON.
Disability Hockey Skills Competition: Friday January 20, 1:00 pm – 1:30 pm.
Game # 1: Friday January 20, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm.
Game # 2: Saturday January 21, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm.
Game # 3: Sunday January 22, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm.
DISABILITY HOCKEY SKILLS COMPETITION
The first-ever Disability Hockey Skills competition – presented by Air Canada features Blind Hockey, Deaf Hockey, Para Hockey, Special Hockey, and Standing Amputee Hockey competing together to showcase that Hockey is For Everyone.
The team that runs the NHL All-Star Skills competition will be organizing the Disability Hockey Skills Competition which will feature a relay race between participants from the five types of hockey for athletes with a disability for the first time ever.
Each relay team will feature one player of each disability hockey type – Blind, Deaf, Para, Special, Standing Amputee – participating in a slightly adapted version of this event from the 2018 all-star game. The team with the lowest total score will win.
The three skills being showcased are:
- Stick handle through pucks
- Tight turns through cones
- Passing the puck through a hole in the gate
SKILLS COMPETITION ROSTER
Blind Hockey: Tim Kane and Jason Yuha
Deaf Hockey: Chris Garbacz and Jalen Harris
Para Hockey: Karina Villegas & Naiyma Sharma
Standing Amputee Hockey: Dave Wells & Graham Spero
Special Hockey: Logan Smith and Kyle Whitehouse
CARNEGIE CUP ELITE BLIND HOCKEY SERIES
The Carnegie Cup takes place from January 20 – 22 and is an elite Blind Hockey Series featuring some of the very best Blind Hockey players from across Canada, the United States, and Europe who will be drafted into two teams to showcase the fastest, most skilled, and most competitive version of the Para sport that has ever been played.
Thirty players have been selected representing five Canadian provinces, six US states, as well as England and Finland demonstrating the rapid international growth of competitive Blind Hockey. The objective of the event is to follow an NHL model by drafting the top Blind Hockey players from around the world to compete in the Para sport of Blind Hockey at the highest level possible. This event is a pilot project to create a new competitive league for the Para sport of Blind Hockey called the Blind Hockey League (BHL), which will be the premier competitive opportunity for Blind Hockey players.
CARNEGIE CUP ELITE BLIND HOCKEY SERIES ROSTERS
ACES – Black | ||||
9 | Anthony | Ashbaugh | Latrobe, PA | USA |
27 | Julien | Blais-Savoie | Montréal, QC | Canada |
64 | Bruno | Haché | Dorval, QC | Canada |
89 | Wyatt | Harvey | Ennismore, ON | Canada |
7 | Tim | Kane | Grandville, MI | USA |
16 | Emily | McLean | Elmvale, ON | Canada |
11 | Charles | Mitchell | Herndon, VA | USA |
72 | Jukka | Pulkkinen | Espoo | Finland |
13 | Ian | Rankin | Windsor, ON | Canada |
58 | Thomas | Raymond | Sainte-Julie, QC | Canada |
19 | Simon | Richard | Moncton, NB | Canada |
22 | Kelly | Serbu | Halifax, NS | Canada |
Goaltenders | ||||
30 | Doug | Goist | Alexandria, VA | USA |
1 | Gary | Steeves | New Westminster, BC | Canada |
Coaches | ||||
Joey | Ali | Surrey, BC | Canada | |
Vince | Dandrea | Toronto, ON | Canada | |
Greg | Manion | Toronto, ON | Canada | |
Jeff | Street | Toronto, ON | Canada | |
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MERCURYS – Yellow | ||||
17 | François | Beauregard | Saint-Hubert, QC | Canada |
7 | Joseph | Del Grande | Scarborough, ON | Canada |
9 | Mark | DeMontis | Toronto, ON | Canada |
27 | Tristan | Lindberg | Edmonton, AB | Canada |
11 | Luke | Miller | Chicago, IL | USA |
16 | Chaz | Misuraca | Stratford, ON | Canada |
22 | Liam | O’Callaghan | Edmonton, AB | Canada |
13 | Amanda | Provan | Sudbury, ON | Canada |
19 | Dan | Schramm | Vail, CO | USA |
24 | Blake | Steinecke | San Marcos, CA | USA |
89 | Nathan | Tree | Oxford | UK |
91 | Jason | Yuha | Rosalind, AB | Canada |
Goaltenders | ||||
30 | Joey | Cabral | Toronto, ON | Canada |
1 | Oliver | Pye | Halifax, NS | Canada |
Coaches | ||||
Wade | Del Grande | Scarborough, ON | Canada | |
Frank | Fornasier | Toronto, ON | Canada | |
Joe | McCallion | Toronto, ON | Canada |
WHO WAS HERB CARNEGIE AND HOW DID HE IMPACT BLIND HOCKEY?
Herb Carnegie, regarded by many as the best Black hockey player to never reach the NHL, was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Builders category in 2022. He co-founded the Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation in 1987 with his wife, Audrey, and daughter Bernice, with a mission to inspire youth to be confident and pursue educational excellence. The non-profit organization has awarded more than $900,000 in scholarships to children across Canada.
Mark DeMontis was a foundation scholarship recipient and a promising AAA hockey player in Toronto at age 17 when a rare eye condition called Leber hereditary optic neuropathy took his sight. Carnegie, who lost his sight due to glaucoma in his later years, bonded with DeMontis and invited him to tell his story to school students and organizations. Inspired by Carnegie and the Future Aces Creed, DeMontis founded Courage Canada in 2009 and traveled more than 3,100 miles from Toronto to Vancouver on in-line skates to raise funds and support blind hockey programming for youth.
In 2016, the organization evolved into Canadian Blind Hockey, which provides programs for blind and partially sighted children and adults that include youth teams, development camps, and tournaments.
“I still remember Herb always looking at me saying, ‘Mark, no matter what happens, keep the spark burning, keep the fire inside of you burning,'” DeMontis said. “Inspiring is an understatement. He saved and changed my life.” More information on NHL.com.
CARNEGIE CUP TEAM NAMES: ACES VS MERCURYS
In order to honour Herb Carnegie and his legacy, the team names for the inaugural Carnegie Cup are a tribute to the last two teams he played for in his storied career: the Aces and the Mercurys.
ABOUT THE CARNEGIE INITIATIVE CI SUMMIT
The Carnegie Initiative Summit 2023 which is a gathering of thought leaders, industry titans, and grassroots champions from across the hockey world. This high-profile weekend-long event will drive meaningful, scalable, inclusive impact and generate millions of media impressions. More information at the Carnegie Summit website.
ABOUT CANADIAN BLIND HOCKEY
Canadian Blind Hockey is the national sports organization for the parasport of Blind Hockey in Canada. We change the lives of children, youth, and adults who are blind or partially sighted through our programs which include school field trips, youth teams, development camps, regional tournaments, and our flagship Canadian National Blind Hockey Tournament. Our programming spans the country from coast-to-coast while supporting Canadian hockey players who are blind or partially sighted of all ages, from playing on the pond to proudly standing on the podium. Our community includes boys and girls as young as four years old who are taking their very first strides on skates, to the elite members of the Canadian National Blind Hockey Team who proudly wear the Maple Leaf in international competition.