Farewell, Titan: Fans crowd Bathurst arena for final regular-season home game
Team will relocate to Newfoundland after the playoffs
With 45 minutes to game time Saturday, three teenage girls stood outside the K.C. Irving Regional Centre, hoping to get their hands on tickets for the final regular-season home game for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
Exchange students from Hungary, Turkey and Spain, the Titan were the first experience of Canadian hockey for Zsanett Szecsod, Hanzade Yakit and Nadia Bernabé.
"We just loved it, and [today is] the last chance we get," Yakit said.
Saturday night's game was the last chance for the three students to see the Titan play before heading back to their home countries, but it was also the last chance for many New Brunswick fans, the ones who grew up with the team, the ones whose children, grown now, still catch a game when they come back home.
The team is relocating to St. John's this fall and will be replaced in Bathurst by the Chaleur Lightning of the Maritime Junior Hockey League.
While a longtime struggle with attendance is one reason the team is leaving, it was not a problem Saturday. For the first time in a long time, the game sold out, evidence in itself of the impact the Titan have had on the community.
The Moncton Wildcats won 6-5 in overtime. But the Titan gave a strong effort against one of the top teams in the country.
"It's an opportunity for us to finish things off strong," said head coach Gordie Dwyer before the game.
The Titan have had some shining moments during their 27-year run in Bathurst, including a Memorial Cup in 2018.
Dwyer said Saturday night's game, though an emotional one, was important for the community — as much a part of the Titan as the players themselves.
"For a small town in northern New Brunswick, to have that and be able to build that history as an organization and be able to share that with the people here in this region, I believe that that's really been the lasting legacy."
It's that legacy that brought Danica Pitre back to Bathurst from Nova Scotia, where she's been living for the past two years after growing up in Beresford.
She said it was worth the drive.
"Outside the ice, [the players have] been in schools, they've been role models for us," she said. "I'm happy to be here today, but I'm going to be really sad to say bye because I know it's the last game for me."
Longtime fans Suzanne and Lloyd Hussey plan to buy season tickets for the Lightning when they arrive in the fall.
But they won't forget the Titan. They had season tickets for the past 15 years.
"It's going to be well-missed," Suzanne said.
The Titan will play Chicoutimi in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs. Games 3, 4 and 5, if necessary, are home games for the Titan.
With files from Victoria Walton