Boychuk and Meunier’s shared history continues with Raiders

“It almost even started after our first year in U15. Both of our teams had so many guys coming back, and we knew that we’d be the top two teams, and so I think that’s honestly kind of where it started and I thought we could be the last two teams standing.”

For Boychuk, losing in that 2021-22 season to Meunier and his St. Albert Raiders served as a motivating factor for him and his team-leading into his 2022-23 draft year.

“Our first year we didn’t play until provincials, they were in Fort Saskatchewan that year, and I remember that game was intense, that was an anticipated game because we were in the South, they were in the North, we hadn’t played each other and they played very well. We ended up not making the finals and they ended up winning, so I think from that on, that feeling, that’s when it started for us and the returners for sure.”

To begin the 2022-23 season, Meunier was named an assistant captain of the St. Albert Raiders, and Boychuk was named captain of the Airdrie Xtreme. Both teams had a number of guys returning, and both teams were prepped for another run at an AEHL Championship.

From the beginning of the season, the Raiders and Xtreme were the runaway favourites with long undefeated streaks. Because they were in separate conferences, the two teams only played each other once all regular season. By the time of that fateful meeting on February 4, 2023, Boychuk’s Xtreme had just a single loss to the Calgary Bisons on the season with a record of 27-1, and Meunier’s Raiders were an undefeated 28-0 on the year.

During that meeting, Boychuk opened the scoring just 25 seconds into the game as he put up 3G-2A in a dominant 9-1 win. Meunier was held off the scoresheet during that game.

For Meunier, that game served as a disappointment despite it being their only loss on the season. “It was just tough. There was so many scouts, so many people, everyone was anticipating it being an awesome, tight game and we got killed.”

Boychuk added, “It was crazy too, because we were both like, I don’t know what our records were 24-1, end of the season, [last game of a] showcase, a Saturday night. It was the most anticipated game of the year in the regular season for sure, other teams were there talking to us. It was definitely a fun game for us and we played very well.”

With six games in the season remaining, neither team lost a game, and the Xtreme finished at the top of the South Division with a 33-1 record, while the Raiders finished at the top of the North Division at 32-2.

Boychuk and Meunier cleaned up the year-end awards too. Meunier finished with the most points in the league at 88 with Boychuk sitting second with 80, and Meunier’s 54 goals lead the league by 20. As for Boychuk, he finished the season with a league-leading 62 assists, ahead of second place by 10, along with the AEHL Top Forward and MVP awards. Both players were named AEHL First Team All-Stars.

In the AEHL, 16 teams make the playoffs, but there are only two rounds of hockey that lead into a five-team round-robin tournament. The top 16 teams are whittled down to four through two rounds of a best-of-three series, and those four teams along with the defending champions enter a round-robin tournament to crown an AEHL Provincial Champion. Because Meunier’s Raiders were the defending champions, the Okotoks Oilers took up the fifth spot.

Boychuk’s Xtreme made quick work of the Calgary Royals and Red Deer Rebels in the first two playoff rounds, and Meunier’s Raiders did the same with the South Side Lions and Canadians of Edmonton. The two teams entered the tournament as the favourites.

With the Raiders entering as the defending champions with just one loss on the year, the target was on their back entering the tournament. Unfortunately for Meunier, his chances at a repeat championship faltered in the first game of the tournament when his Raiders lost 4-3 to the Knights of Columbus Squires, and they lost the rest of their round-robin games 5-2 to the Okotoks Oilers, 6-3 to the Calgary Bisons, and 4-0 in the rematch with the Airdrie Xtreme.

For Boychuk and the Airdrie Xtreme, they tied the opening game 5-5 with the Calgary Bisons, which served as a prequel to the tournament final. The Xtreme rolled over the rest of the competition 9-3 over the Knights of Columbus Squires, 4-0 over the St. Albert Raiders, and 6-1 over the Okotoks Oilers as Boychuk picked up a point in every game. In the final, the Xtreme earned their rematch with the Calgary Bisons, and even though Boychuk was finally held off the scoresheet the Xtreme still managed to win 3-2.

“We had a really great regular season, one for the record books, but we kind of knew coming in that wouldn’t mean anything if we didn’t end up with a title, and it wasn’t a full sweep. We tied our first game against the Calgary Bisons and it was like, whoa, because we tied last year too and we knew if we lose another game, we could be out. So then I think that was what really set the playoffs apart for us. Then we started playing really well, we beat KC, we beat St. Albert, and then we beat Okotoks and we’re on to the final and that was a crazy game too, but we ended up getting it done.”

At the end of the AEHL Provincial Tournament, Boychuk was named the Playoff MVP after putting up 1G-7A in five games.

The two of them met for the first time during camp for the 2023-24 camp for the Prince Albert Raiders, but that didn’t happen on the ice. Meunier had his appendix removed during the summer and wasn’t able to skate, but he remembers Boychuk coming up to him during that camp to introduce himself.

“He kind of came up to me and, cause he’s a nice guy, he asked how I was doing and all that, and then I don’t know, I talked to him later, but it took a while for us to really talk about how we were racing for it (scoring title) and our teams and all that.”

Boychuk added, “I remember like it was just normal conversations when we first met, but once you got closer we had some chats about it and went back to our year and what happened, but when we both got drafted it was nice because we had some pretty intense battles with each other. So now we can battle alongside each other. It’s for sure nice to be on the same team now.”

This year with the Raiders, Meunier and Boychuk have been on a line together, usually with Luke Moroz between them. So far Boychuk has 3G-5A while Meunier has 8G-2A.

You can listen to the full version of this story as part of the first episode of the Hockey Town North Show podcast that’s available here, and available on all podcast streaming platforms.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

Boychuk and Meunier’s shared history continues with Raiders

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