Women's collegiate hockey in Quebec dealt blow as school's storied program put on pause

A couple of dozen elite hockey players are scrambling to find a new team to play with after CEGEP de Saint-Laurent confirmed Thursday that its women's hockey program won't be on the ice for the foreseeable future. The school is blaming difficulties recruiting enough players.

"We are not making this decision lightly," said Danielle Malkassoff, director of student services and communications at the Montreal CEGEP.

"We prefer to take one step back and then two steps forward," she said.

Malkassoff couldn't say when the team might return to the ice but hinted it could be a few years.

"Women's hockey is not dead. It is part of our DNA."

Malkassoff said the last few years have been difficult. "There was a lack of stability in the coaching position and when the coach leaves, players often leave."

It certainly has been a difficult period for the program, one of the oldest collegiate teams in the province.

First, there was COVID-19, which scrapped an entire season, but that was the same for other programs, as well.

Then, at the beginning of the 2021-22 season, the team parted ways with coach Dany Brunet because he wasn't vaccinated.

Partway through the season, the Patriotes replaced Brunet with Alexandria D'Onoforio. The former Dawson College and Concordia Stinger player had been coaching U18 AAA teams but this was the 27-year-old's first crack at coaching at the collegiate level. The Patriotes struggled on the ice, winning just five games.

In April, after the season had ended, the CEGEP's athletic director, Hugo Lamoureux, fired both D'Onoforio and assistant coach Léa McIntyre.

The news was hard to take, but D'Onofrio says the biggest slap in the face is what Lamoureux said during that conversation.

"We basically got a phone call