If there is one University of Manitoba Bisons event you should attend annually, it's this one. The Bisons Hockey Scholarship Fundraising Reception happens on Monday, January 20, and there's going to be some really good eats to go along with a couple of special presentations and a fantastic guest speaker who will have much to say about the importance of supporting education through hockey.
The guest who will join us to talk about supporting students who play hockey is Matt Cockell, President, General Manager and Alternate Governor of the WHL's Winnipeg ICE. Matt is a graduate of the University of Manitoba in 2004 where he graduated with an Honours degree in Marketing and Small Business Finance following his playing days in the WHL with the Saskatoon Blades, Seattle Thunderbirds, Regina Pats, and Spokane Chiefs. Matt's experience with the Bisons program should also be highlighted as he was an assistant coach under Jon Rempel back in 2012!
Clearly, Matt will use both his personal experiences in the game and his knowledge of running a WHL team to talk about why it's important to support the Bisons Hockey Scholarship Fund as he's both been a student and a coach at the University of Manitoba!
We'll also be in the midst of a couple of stars who wore the Bisons colours on Monday, January 20 as the Bisons will induct two new members to the Bisons Hockey Hall of Fame! The Bisons men's hockey team is proud to induct Mark Mackay who played with the Bisons from 1982-84 while the Bisons women's hockey team is thrilled to induct Venla Hovi who played with the Herd from 2015-18! In case you're wondering, yes, these two players did play in the Olympics!
If you're unaware of who Mark Mackay is, the Brandon native walked onto the team in 1982 where he was named Bisons Rookie of the Year in 1982-83 and a Second Team All-Star. Following his strong debut season, he helped the Bisons capture the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) championship in 1983-84. While his time at the Bisons ended in 1984, Mackay wasn't done with the accolades in hockey!
Click here to read more about Mark Mackay!
Mackay went off to the WHL where he joined the Moose Jaw Warriors after they had moved from Winnipeg to the Saskatchewan town. As the lone 20 year-old, over-aged player on the team, he was named captain of the Warriors for their inaugural season while 66 goals and 74 assists for 140 points - 26 points better than anyone else on the team! He was named as the WHL Rookie of the Year after tying for third-overall in league scoring and ending as fourth-overall in goal scoring! That goal-scoring total also included a seven-goal game against Brandon in a 12-3 blowout of the Wheat Kings on December 19, 1984 - a record shared with four other players including Brian Propp and Ray Ferraro!
With him being 20 years-old, he wasn't able to play any additional seasons in the WHL, he was recruited by Neuss SC in Germany in 1986 who were looking to add some serious firepower to their lineup. They found that with Mackay as he demolished goalies in the old second-division Bundesliga over two seasons with Neuss, scoring 102 goals and 94 assists in 94 games! He would move to Grefrath EC in 1990 where he'd play three seasons before jumping to Timmendorf Strand EC for one season in the first-division German league where he 71 goals and 84 assists in 47 games.
His scoring exploits in the lower divisions were catching the attention of the teams in the DEL, and Mackay would make the move in 1995 when he joined the Schwenningen Wild Wings where fans adored his skill and showmanship. He played seven seasons with Schwenningen where he never scored less than 32 points in a season, and was named captain of the Wild Wings thanks to his skill, effort, and leadership.
What you may not know is that Germany became Mackay's home as he adopted his new hockey home as his own. That led to Mackay joining the German national hockey team where he played in six IIHF World Championships, a World Cup of Hockey, and two Olympic Games for his adopted nation. He record one goal and three assists at the 1998 Nagano Olympics with his first-ever Olympic goal coming against France and Francois Gravel in a 2-0 victory! While Germany wouldn't reach the medals in 1998, he did get to play alongside NHL stars such as Olaf Kolzig, Uwe Krupp, Jochen Hecht, and Marco Sturm!
Mackay would play again in Salt Lake City for the Germans where he would be a difference-maker for Germany as he scored a goal in each of the opening two games as Germany beat Slovakia and Austria! He'd record a pair of assists against Latvia in another win before the Czechs held him off the scoresheet. In the fifth game, Mackay would go up against the Canadians where Germany didn't fare very well, but Mackay may have created a memory of a lifetime.
Mark Mackay can now claim that he's scored on two NHL goaltenders in Austria's Reinhard Divis and Canada's Martin Brodeur! Yes, that's Hockey Hall of Fame member Martin Brodeur! He's also Stanley Cup champion Martin Brodeur! In six games at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, Mark Mackay would finish the tournament with three goals and two assists for Germany!
Closer to today, Mackay was also named as the Honourary Captain for the 2011 Subway Super Series game between Team WHL and the Russian National Junior Team that was played in Moose Jaw on November 17th, 2011 as the Warriors brought back one of their most beloved players of all-time to lead Canada into action at the Subway Super Series!
Today, Mark is a NHLPA Certified Agent working out of Calgary with Creative Artist Agency (CAA), one of the leading NHL agencies. His clients include Tyler Myers, Andrew Ladd, Brett Howden, Tyler Johnson, and many other young players.
He was an incredible ball hockey player, he scored over 2000 points as a professional hockey player, he established a "Goals For Kids" charity as a player in Germany to help underprivileged kids in Schwenninger, and he's a Moose Jaw Warriors & Legends Hall of Famer. Needless to say, it will be quite an honour to induct Mark Mackay into the Bisons Hockey Hall of Fame after all he's done across this planet when it comes to hockey.
We should need no introduction for Venla Hovi as her storied career with Team Finland and the University of Manitoba has been told a few times in this city, but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell it once more because she absolutely deserves it. If you haven't heard, she elevated a program in the Manitoba Bisons women's hockey team to new heights and played a key role in helping the team win its first U SPORTS National Championship weeks after earning a bronze medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games! And the key in these two amazing accomplishments in 2018 is that it only scratches the surface of what she has accomplished!
Click here to read more about Venla Hovi!
Venla Hovi's story starts in a familiar place for Winnipeg Jets fans as she grew up on the rinks of Tampere, Finland. She began to catch the eye of the Finnish national program, eventually starring with the Finland U22 team and Ylöjärvi Ilves in the SM-sarja league from 2002 to 2007. She had a brief NCAA career for one season in 2007-08 when she joined Niagara University.
As she excelled on the ice, she was also a solid student who found her way into the University of Vaasa where she studied and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Communications and Applied Linguistics. During this time, she was playing with Tampereen Ilves, HPK Hameenlinna, and KalPa which led to her being chosen to represent Finland at 2008 and 2009 IIHF Women's World Championships and the 2010 Winter Olympic Games! She brought home two World Championship bronze medals and an Olympic bronze medal from those events!
In 2015 following a disappointing fifth-place finish at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, Hovi enrolled at the University of Manitoba where she studied in the post graduate program for Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. With two Olympic Games under her belt, she was a welcome addition to the Manitoba Bisons women's hockey team where her dominant defensive play was noticeable on every shift.
She was good in the offensive zone for the Bisons as well, scoring 21 goals and 39 points in 51 games for the Herd, but it was her speed, defensive awareness, and hockey IQ that put her a step out in front of everyone else. I was lucky enough to see this in person a number of times, but perhaps it was never more evident than in that 2017-18 season.
Hovi took the entire second-half of the season off in order to attend the Finnish Olympic camp and the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. You could see there was a hole in the lineup without her, but the Bisons were unfazed by her absence as they captured first-place in Canada West with her in South Korea. They would await the lowest-seeded quarterfinal winner out of Alberta, Regina, and Mount Royal. It would turn out to be the Alberta Pandas who dispatched the Regina Cougars in two-straight games, so the fourth-seeded Pandas would play the first-seeded Bisons.
Alberta would win Game One of this best-of-three series by a 4-1 score just days after Finland had won the bronze medal in Pyeongchang, and we were repeatedly told that there was virtually no chance Venla would be back in time for series against Alberta. What we weren't told was that Venla has decided to skip the closing ceremonies, drive four hours to Seoul, get on a plane for nine hours to Vancouver, spend six more hours in the Vancouver airport due to a snowstorm before getting back to Winnipeg only to find her gear hadn't arrived! Her hockey gear would arrive in time for Game Two of the series where Hovi assisted on Sheridan Oswald's opening goal in a 2-1 overtime victory before setting up what might be the biggest goal in the program's history in the fourth overtime period of Game Three.
Venla's shot towards the Alberta net was deflected by Jordy Zacharias to eliminate the Pandas and send Manitoba to the Canada West final, and, more importantly, to the U SPORTS National Tournament as one of the two Canada West representatives!
After dispatching Saskatchewan in a two-game sweep, Manitoba defeated the Queen's Golden Gaels 4-0 and the Concordia Stingers 2-1 in a shootout before meeting the Western Mustangs in the U SPORTS National Championship game. Hovi would score Manitoba's second goal at 5:10 of the third period to help lead the Bisons to the 2-0 victory and their first Golden Path Trophy as she collected her second hockey medal in as many months! When the school year finally came to a close, she was also named as the Manitoba Bisons Female Athlete of the Year!
Venla would opt to play in the CWHL following that magical spring, registering for the draft where she was chosen by the Calgary Inferno. She would score her first North American professional goal against Olympic teammate Noora Raty in a game against Shenzhen KRS Rays. Her defensive abilities proved key down the stretch for the Inferno as she helped the Inferno defeat Les Canadiennes in the Clarkson Cup Final to win the CWHL championship, becoming the first Finn to win the Clarkson Cup!
Hovi would suit up for her country once again at the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship in front of the home crowd in Espoo, Finland where the Finns shocked the world, defeating Canada in the semi-final to advance to the gold medal game against the Americans. While it seemed like the Finns won the game on a great overtime goal, the IIHF ruled differently in believing there was goaltender interference, allowing the Americans a second chance to win gold. They would outscore the Finns in the shootout, but Finland won their very first IIHF Women's World Championship silver medal. The very next day, Venla Hovi retired from international and professional competition.
With a few more minutes in each day to fill without the rigors of training for international competitions or professional games, Hovi jumped at the chance to join Jon Rempel's coaching staff with the Bisons women's team this season. She also was the first woman to be hired by True North Sports and Entertainment as a high-performance coach in the Winnipeg Jets' Hockey Development program.
Venla Hovi has won at every level she's played at, and she absolutely deserves to be inducted into the Bisons Hockey Hall of Fame after all she did for the women's program.
You be wondering what it costs to hang out with a couple of Olympians and a young hockey executive as well as all of the Bisons hockey players. Well, not as much as you may think! All proceeds from the evening's fundraising efforts will go to support the athletic scholarship needs of Bisons hockey. Single ticket prices are $200 with a tax receipt for the donation portion of the ticket. Corporate tickets are also available six for $1000 and young Bisons alumni (under 30) can get six tickets for $750.
Your $200 ticket may seem like a heavy price tag, but let's not forget that you're getting dinner at the Journey to Churchill event center at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, a chance to sample some great adult beverages from Fort Garry Brewing, and you'll have a chance to win some amazing prizes in the silent auction and grand prize drawings. I won't reveal what's in the auction or grand prize package - you have to buy a ticket to find out! - but let's just say that there are a lot of autographs on a lot of hockey merchandise and memorabilia at this event.
Because you're attending a fundraiser, you will get a tax receipt as well, making that $200 ticket a little more palatable. On top of that, the funds raised will go towards helping the Bisons award scholarship monies to worthy students who have excelled in the classroom while working just as hard on the ice. These scholarships have criteria that must be met for students to qualify for them, so the proceeds raised on January 20 are being used for good. That's why your support is so important!
If you want to attend this year's Bisons Hockey Scholarship Fundraising Reception, please click on that link and follow the directions. Help the Bisons reward players like Mark Mackay and Venla Hovi who work as hard off the ice on their grades as they do on the ice. As the Bisons stress to all their players, the most important part of "student-athlete" is the student part, and you can't be a Bisons athlete without being a Bisons student. With your contributions, the Bisons hockey programs can ensure that hard-working students get a chance to be athletes at the next level.
So what are you waiting for? Click the link, and we'll see you on January 20!
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