players up and down the lineup on any given Saturday, the Comets have become an offensive juggernaut in the Outaouais Senior AA Hockey League (OSAAHL).

But so far, playing one of the most important roles on the roster has been goaltender Danick Boisvert who has brought tons of confidence to the hottest team in the league with timely saves in big moments.

Along with being the OSAAHL’s founder, Administrative Director and the owner of the Comets, Boisvert leads all OSAAHL netminders with 10 wins in 14 starts.

Boisvert is the man behind the annual Fort Coulonge 3-on-3 tournament – an initiative organized to raise funds for the local arena.

Now going in its 10th year, the tournament has raised a combined $90,000-plus for the rink, Boisvert said.

Despite the tremendous amount of effort the event takes to organize, Boisvert said that he’s grateful to be a contributor of the community’s hockey culture and thankful for the support he’s received over the years.

“I love bringing hockey related events together,” he said. “It brings a lot of people there to watch. It moves the community and the people really appreciate it. It’s heart-warming to know that people appreciate it. I don’t do it for the pride or anything like that. I just do it for the arena and I do it for myself because I love it.”

While wearing numerous hats can be a challenge, Boisvert said that he’s well supported by people helping him oversee every aspect of the Comets and the league, from ticket sales to recruiting talent.

Fortunately, all he needs to focus on is stopping pucks and winning games.

Growing up in Davidson, Boisvert first hit the ice at age five.

Initially starting out as a skater, he recalls not being the most talented player.

Fond of goaltending however, he idolized multi-Stanley Cup champion and hall of famer, Patrick Roy.

So quickly enough, Boisvert asked his parents if he could give it a try, to which they accepted.

After finally putting on his first pair of TPS pads, Boisvert started his minor hockey career in Fort Coulonge with the Draveurs.

“Ever since then, I’ve been in love with goaltending,” he said.

In his early years – Novice and Atom – Boisvert evolved significantly and eventually decided to try out for an Atom BB team in La Pêche.

After performing well in the try out, he made the team and ended up playing with current Comets teammate Hugo Petit as well as Ottawa Gee Gees captain Quinn O’Brien.

During his Pee Wee years, Boisvert mostly split his time between Fort Coulonge and La Pêche before taking his talents to the Ontario side of the river in his second year of Bantam.

Following a try out for the Bantam AAA Ottawa Valley Titans, he cracked one of the two goalie spots on the roster.

Only 14 years old at the time, Boisvert attended school at l’École secondaire Catholique Jeanne Lajoie in Pembroke.

While he mostly travelled to and from school with a teacher who lived in Fort Coulonge, Boisvert recalls his father renting an apartment in Pembroke for him to stay in when he had late games or practices on school nights.

“Those were some really big sacrifices,” he said. “It was just an apartment for me. I wasn’t there all the time … but when I was alone at the apartment at 14-15 years old, having to make stuff to eat it got pretty complicated.”

In his first season with the Titans (2008-09), Boisvert recorded 10 wins in 16 games with a 2.17 goals-against-average (GAA) – both good for second place in the Hockey Eastern Ontario Minor AAA League (HEOMAAAL).

Because of its demanding training regimen, Boisvert said his experience with the Titans was very beneficial to his on-ice development.

“We practiced a lot,” he said. “We did off-ice training and that’s where I really developed. It was the best option. It was the highest caliber for my age group and it was the only way to move up to the next level.”

During the next year (2009-10), Boisvert played in Midget AA for the Ottawa Valley Aces, after being cut by his former team.

That season, Boisvert recorded an 11-4-1 record with a 2.17 GAA, helping his team reach tremendous success, winning all their tournaments, including the playoffs and the regionals.

Boisvert then decided to return to La Belle Province to finish high school with his childhood friends at l’École Ssecondaire Sieur de Coulonge.

So, before the start of the 2010-11 season, Boisvert contacted the Gatineau Intrepide organization, asking if he could try out for its Midget AAA team.

After attending try outs, he didn’t make the cut. But coaches saw enough in him to give him a spot in Midget AA playing in the Hockey Eastern Ontario Midget AA League. In his lone season with the Intrepides, Boisvert recorded a 10-2-2 record with a 2.44 GAA leading his team to second place in the league standings.

Despite his success, Boisvert said that playing for the Intrepides wasn’t easy because of the league’s demanding travelling schedule.

“It was really tough,” he said. “Evenings I had to go home from school and my dad had to finish work early and we went to practices twice per week and we played about two games every weekend.”

After wrapping up his minor hockey career, Boisvert looked towards the next step – junior hockey.

After receiving a call from Shawville Pontiacs Junior B head coach, Chris Byrne, about an opportunity to try out for the team, Boisvert was all in.

In training camp, Boisvert stole the show along with the team’s starting goalie job and in his first season in the Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League (EOJHL) – 2011-12 – Boisvert recorded a 4.24 GAA in 24 starts.

The following season, as a 19-year-old, Boisvert tried out for the Gloucester Rangers – a Junior A team in the Central Canadian Hockey League.

The team already had two established goaltenders on its depth chart. But by the end of camp, Boisvert made one of those spots his own.

During his lone season as a Ranger, Boisvert amassed a 4.59 GAA in 11 starts.

Attending school at La Cité Collégiale in Ottawa, at the same time, Boisvert said his time with the Rangers was never easy, noting that it wasn’t exactly a winning culture.

“It was really demanding,” he said. “I went to school, practiced every day and we weren’t playing for a winning team. We played for one of the worst teams in the league. So, it was tough for a goalie to perform at that level.”

For the next season (2014-15), Boisvert returned to Shawville to finish his junior career with the Pontiacs where he recorded a 3.63 GAA in 20 starts.

While the team struggled to find success, Boisvert said he enjoyed his experience with the Pontiacs nonetheless.

“It was a great gang of boys,” he said. “The coaches were really good guys. They were young people too. So, it was really a great opportunity to go play over there. It was close too. So, my family often went to watch me play.”

The following summer, Boisvert set his sights on the University of Moncton in New Brunswick, planning on trying out for the school’s hockey team.

Despite his best efforts, the school kept its goaltending tandem intact, leaving Boisvert without a spot.

Fortunately, he got drafted by the Elsipogtog Hawks – located on a First Nations reserve – playing in the North Eastern Senior Hockey League (NESHL).

Offering an exciting brand of high-level hockey, Boisvert said that the NESHL opened his eyes to what a great product Senior hockey could be for small-town hockey fanatics.

“I think it was that experience that made me discover senior hockey and at what point it’s a product that’s fun to have for fans,” he said. “It’s pretty fun for players as well who get to continue playing competitively.”

In 2016-17, Boisvert tended the pipes for the La Cité Collégiale Coyotes, while working towards a degree in Business Administration.

During that period, Boi svert noticed that the region boasted tons of uber talented hockey players, but that there wasn’t anywhere for them to play.

Seeing the potential of small-towns all over the region, Boisvert was convinced that a senior league in the Outaouais was viable.

“I told myself that the product would surely work because people love hockey too much for it not to,” he said. “I launched the project and finally it got going … That’s where the senior league all started.”

Step one was establishing a viable business plan, which involved determining what kind of product was desired, who it would be marketed to and how the league would go about recruiting players, Boisvert said.

He explained that the most difficult aspect of building the OSAAHL from the ground up was convincing players to join a league that they really didn’t know all too much about.

“There are a lot of great players in the region,” he said. “But they don’t know about senior hockey … it was about knowing how to entice those guys to come play either way.”

While the league is still a work in progress, Boisvert said he’s thrilled with how far it has come, noting that almost 80 per cent of the region’s best players currently play in the OSAAHL.

“From day one, I was looking for the elite caliber in the Outaouais and I think we’ve arrived,” he said. “If not, we’re not far from there.”

For this season, Boisvert is hopeful that the Comets continue their unprecedented run, finish first place and hoist the Hull Volant Cup at the end of the season.

In the years to come, Boisvert hopes the Comets organization and the OSAAHL keeps growing in terms of local involvement from sponsors, businesses and fans as well as for the league’s on-ice product to keep getting better.

Perhaps one day – maybe a year from now – the league will be represented on senior hockey’s biggest stage – the Alan Cup, Boisvert said.

Currently living in Gatineau, Boisvert works for his father’s climatic heating company – Les Entreprises Boisvert – specializing in sales and installations.

Boisvert said the best part about the job is that his schedule allows him to concentrate on what he loves the most during his free time – hockey.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “It allows me to do both at the same time. With a full-time job of 60 hours per week, I wouldn’t be able to do it because running Comets is really demanding. It requires a lot of time during evenings and during the day as well with calls and texts.”

Having been attached to the hip every step of the way, Boisvert said he’s grateful to still have his father around the game because he’s always been his number-one fan.

Now, an assistant coach for the Comets, Claude was the organization’s first head coach during its inaugural season in 2018-19.

“He’s been with me since the beginning and I think he’s someone whom I can go to for advice,” he said. “He really supports me in everything I do. I’m really happy that he’s still in good health and still around me at the rink.”

by J.D Potié

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