Alum of the month: Reid recalls inaugural Griffins season, pro journey and unforgettable Olympic moments
Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Scott Reid can laugh about it now.
But the night the MacEwan Griffins men's hockey team won its first game in program history, their workhorse goaltender was sitting in St. Mary's Hospital in Camrose after catching a skate blade to the neck at the nearby Max McLean Arena.
It was a Saturday night – Nov. 14, 1998 – less than nine years after Buffalo Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk nearly died on the ice when a skate severed his carotid artery and partially cut his jugular during an NHL game.
Fortunately for Reid, the skate he caught – friendly fire when his own defenceman was checked into him – hit his collarbone instead.
"He was like 'yeah, good thing my skates were dull,' " recounted Reid. "I got lucky because it went deep on my collarbone. If it went deep where I had my other little nick, it might have been different."
Although he was in pain, Reid desperately wanted to stay in the game, which was tied in the third period. Coming into the contest, the upstart Griffins were languishing at the bottom of the standings with an 0-7-1 record, having been outscored 49-19 over the first month of their inaugural Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference season.
Finally, though, they had a fighter's chance to win one.
"I skated to the bench because I knew something was wrong, but I tripped because I was skating so fast," said Reid. "Our trainer was like 'no, you have to go to the hospital.' I was like 'no, we're in a game here for once.'
"I made her a deal: 'OK, I'll go look in the mirror; if it's bad enough we'll go to the hospital.' I went and looked in the mirror and … 'OK, we're going to the hospital.' "
Backup Garrett Carther entered the game and got credit for the first win in program history as the Griffins broke a tie late and eked out a 7-5 triumph. Still at the hospital waiting to get stitched up, Reid found out about the win when assistant/goaltending coach Dave McLennan walked in with a gash on his forehead.
"I was like, 'what happened to you?' He says, 'well, we won the game and one of the guys on the bench celebrating threw his stick in the air and hit me on the head,' " recalled Reid. "So, the assistant coach and I are sitting there getting stitched up at the same time."
It's an unforgettable memory from what easily could be a forgettable season – the Griffins finished dead last at 3-24-1 after being regularly outshot and outplayed on a nightly basis.
If not for Reid, though, they might not have won a game at all. As a testament to his performance that season, in an extremely rare moment, the goaltender from the last place team was named Canadian Colleges Athletic Association player of the year.
"All the hard work you put in throughout the year pays off," said Reid of winning the prestigious award. "You're on a team that's so-called not that talented compared to everybody else, but you're getting recognized for all your hard work.
"It's something special and something I've never forgotten. Sometimes it gets frustrating, but at the end of the day you channel that frustration into your play hopefully and just keep an even keel. It paid off."
The very first MacEwan Griffins men's hockey team made their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference debut in 1998-99 (All photos, courtesy Scott Reid).
The Griffins men's hockey program has come a long way since that first season, recently graduating to the Canada West ranks after ending a 22-year run in the ACAC with three-straight championships. But it all started in 1998 with home games in the Kinsmen Twin Arenas on 111th St.
"It was great," said Reid. "We had a good coaching staff. The guys were great. Everybody was just kind of feeling it out and just excited to be in such a great league.
"The program had to start somewhere and to be a part of that inaugural season was something special," he added. "For the school to continue to improve on that and get to a point where they are a powerhouse is incredible."
Team MVP in all three of his seasons with the Griffins (1998-01), Reid made nearly 3,000 saves – still a career program record that might never be touched. He managed an overall save percentage of .895 in a stretch where MacEwan won just 20 out of 84 regular season games.
Needless to say, he remembers garnering an envious collection of ACAC player of the game T-shirts.
"There's a 28-game season. I think I got like 20 of them every year," he recalled. "Guys were (asking) 'can you share?' 'No, they're good for the gym.'
"It was just kind of funny. You don't know if you deserve it every night. We didn't score any goals, so they had to give it to somebody. I think I got some favours – 'OK, you deserve it, you faced 60 shots.' "
Two decades later and now living in Calgary, Reid has made another lifetime of memories since graduating from MacEwan.
First off, he's married to longtime Canadian women's hockey team defenceman Meaghan Mikkelson and has been by her side as she's won two Olympic gold medals.
The couple met at Perry Pearn's hockey camp in Edmonton in 2006 and their relationship blossomed the following season in the U.S. when Mikkelson was a senior at the University of Wisconsin and Reid was playing in the American Hockey League for the Milwaukee Admirals.
"We were only 30 minutes apart," he explained.
They were married in 2011, before Reid's final season of a professional playing career that spanned 13 seasons and 469 minor pro games.
Included in that run was half of an NHL exhibition game for the Nashville Predators in 2006, which was the closest he came to the show.
Scott Reid appeared in half of an NHL exhibition game in 2006, sharing the Nashville net that night in Columbus with former Grande Prairie atom goalie partner Chris Mason.
As the Preds prepared for their preseason opener on Sept. 17, 2006 in Columbus, they called up Reid from the Milwaukee Admirals to replace injured then-prospect Pekka Rinne.
"(I remember) just jumping on the private plane to Columbus thinking this is great," said Reid. "The cool story about that one is Chris Mason was the other goalie. He and I played atom (hockey) together in Grande Prairie. It was our first year of goaltending, so it was like coming full circle."
Despite a shutout performance against the Blue Jackets – ("Zero goals, 13 shots. Kind of a big deal," he chuckled) – Reid was sent back down the next day and never got a sniff of the NHL again.
"I went down and played in Milwaukee that year," he said. "You think you might have a chance, but contract situations don't help you. The other goalie that was with me was on a two-way NHL/AHL deal and I'm on a two-way AHL/ECHL deal. Well, a goalie gets hurt, guess who gets called up? It's him, even though I was playing in front of him at that time. That's how close it is. That could have been your only chance."
Nevertheless, he built a pretty solid minor pro resume, which included winning the Central Hockey League goaltender of the year award (2003-04 with the San Angelo Saints) and being named an all-star five times in seven seasons.
His playing career ended in 2012 after 19 games in the WCHL, 360 in the CHL, 20 in the AHL, 38 in the ECHL and 32 in the U.K. Elite Ice Hockey League with the Edinburgh Capitals, the latter opportunity coming about via social media.
"In 2010, I was in Anchorage (with the Alaska Aces) and I had my third hip surgery," he said. "So, I'm 'OK, I'm done playing.' My wife was playing for the Canadian Olympic team and they just won gold, so I was like, 'OK, I'll just follow her around now and call it a career.' Then some guy on Facebook wrote, 'hey, we're looking for a goalie in Edinburgh.' The next thing I know, I'm playing in Edinburgh."
With the San Angelo Saints in 2003-04, Scott Reid was named the Central Hockey League goaltender of the year.
Off the ice, his experiences have been just as interesting. A year before he and Mikkelson were married, she helped Team Canada capture a historic gold medal victory on home soil in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
It was an unforgettable moment for the country, the team and the couple as Reid was able to make it to Vancouver just in time for the game. With the gold medal contest set for a Thursday at General Motors Place, Reid was in Boise, Idaho with the Alaska Aces, in the middle of a road ECHL series on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
"I was the only goalie because the other guy got called up to the AHL," Reid explained. "So, we fly in Tuesday to Boise, I play Wednesday. On Thursday morning, I catch the first flight out to Vancouver, watch the game in the afternoon and stay up all night after they won.
"I catch my next flight in the morning back to Boise on Friday. I got not much sleep, if any – I slept at the airport. I arrive in Boise at 10 and the guys are just going on the ice for practice. Coach is like, 'go to bed.' I sleep until 5 o'clock. We had to be in the dressing room at 5:15, so good thing the hotel was attached to the rink. I just walked down and played Friday, Saturday and got back to Anchorage on Sunday.
"I think we lost, but it was a good game."
In an unforgettable experience at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Scott Reid cheered on his wife Meaghan Mikkelson to a gold medal with Team Canada while also coaching the Japanese women's hockey team.
The 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia brought about an exciting opportunity for Reid. Not only was he able to be by Mikkelson's side as she and her Canadian teammates repeated as Olympic champions, he was hired to be the goaltending coach for the Japanese women's hockey team.
"To be honest with you, it was an amazing experience," said Reid. "We did the opening ceremonies together. My Japanese bag in the dressing room was full of Canadian apparel, so I'd just switch it out – go up and be a fan and watch the games. I had the best of both worlds. I was able to be behind the scenes, yet I was able to go be a fan and enjoy the whole experience that way, as well."
A year later, Reid was named head coach of the Calgary Inferno – Mikkelson's Canadian Women's Hockey League club team – and led them to the 2015-16 Clarkson Cup championship. At the end of the 2016-17 season, he shared the stage with his wife as she took home defensive player of the year honours and he won the CWHL's coach of the year award.
At the 2017 Canadian Women's Hockey League banquet, Scott Reid shared the stage with his wife Meghan Mikkelson as they won coach of the year and defensive player of the year awards, respectively.
Now with two young kids, Reid has put coaching on the backburner. He went to another Olympics with Mikkelson (2018 PyeongChang, South Korea) as a fan and continues to contribute to the game of hockey as much as he can.
"It all depends. I'd love to stay in the game," he said. "Calder's playing now. He's U6, he's out there running around, so it's fun coaching him now. Obviously, with Meaghan trying to make another Olympics … I'm a sports psychologist, too.
"Maybe now you're at the point where you focus on your kids," he added. "It's their turn. I can give back that way."
