Laura Stacey's annual charity road hockey tournament brings much-needed smiles

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It’s been a tough summer for the player’s side of the PWHL but there were only smiles at an event Saturday afternoon that included the best of the best from the league that took over a small chunk of Etobicoke.

It was Laura Stacey’s annual LS7 Sticks In For Charity ball hockey tournament and it brought out the who’s who in the PWHL from Stacey to last year’s MVP Marie-Philip Poulin to last year’s Rookie of the Year Sarah Fillier and last year’s defender of the year Renata Fast to name just a few who took part in the tournament.

For the first time, Stacey, her friends and family didn’t have to organize this all on their own with her LS7 charity gaining national standing, and with it a year-round foundation that took over some of the planning duties.

But it was still very much a Stacey family and neighbourhood event with four rinks closing off a handful of suburban roads in Etobicoke just south of Dundas St.

It was the sixth annual tournament for Stacey and her family, and for the second year in a row surpassed the $50,000 goal that goes to support youth access to sport.

Later this summer Stacey and her foundation will host her first Montreal tournament and hopes to match what they raised Saturday in Toronto.

Saturday’s all-day tournament was won by a team captained by former Toronto Sceptres goalie Erica Howe over a Fillier-led squad.

Fillier, who played goal in the tournament as did most of the PWHL celebs taking part, showed plenty of skill in the net but was the victim of a bad bounce off the end boards that allowed the Howe-led green team to prevail in overtime in the championship game.

Howe, who has been a participant all six years the tournament has existed, still marvels six years in at the support her good friend Stacey receives from the Etobicoke neighbourhood where she grew up and her family still resides.

“Every year coming here you just feel the impact it has on this community,” Howe said. “As soon as you walk in, I mean it’s not a big thing. It’s just neighbours playing road hockey, and raising money for sport. But both community and sport have been huge in my life, especially the past year, so you feel it. It’s genuine and wholesome and I just love it here.”

Howie, as she is affectionately known by teammates and friends, saw that support this past year in her battle with cancer as both the hockey community and her work community within the firefighting profession rallied to keep her spirits up and her outlook positive as she went through chemotherapy.

For Stacey, the day is a labour of love and togetherness as all the people in her life rally to make her tournament the roaring success is has become.

But Stacey also saw the lift a get-together like this can be for her teammates and league mates who may have struggled these past couple of months watching as their teams were somewhat dismantled in order to bring two expansion teams right up to speed.

“There’s a lot of emotions, right,” Stacey said of the expansion process. “People are on teams that they love but now they are going to different teams. We are losing teammates. It’s all those emotions, but I think at the end of the day all of us, even here, you just zoom out a little and remind yourself we’re playing professionally now. There’s not really much to complain about. Yes, maybe we are moving far and yes, maybe our friends are leaving and going to different cities, but at the end of the day Seattle and Vancouver are phenomenal cities and those women’s sports markets are going to thrive and so many new girls are going to get the opportunity to watch pros play which is a great perspective to have.”

Fast, the smooth-skating, hard hitting Sceptres’ defender, sees it much the same way, but admitted watching good friends and great teammates leave in droves this summer has not been easy.

“You lose key pieces like Sarah Nurse or even Izzy Daniel, Julia Gosling and Megan Carter, three players we just drafted,” Fast said. “You could see their development throughout the year and then just really great people on top of that, so it’s just tough to see people like that go. Just a really weird off season.

Fast, though, said the bigger picture is it’s just part of what every player in the league has always wanted.

“At the end of the day, the fact we are expanding when we are is incredible and you do want parity across the league,” Fast said. “This is what we wanted. We wanted to be treated like professionals and this is the reality of being pros. Yes, it’s new for all of us and we are all navigating it together, but I think the women’s hockey community is very supportive. And no matter what team you are on, you are going to have great teammates. There’s comfort in knowing everyone will eventually be happy wherever they end up just because of the group of people.”

mganter@postmedia.com