Hockey’s oldest rivalry is alive and well. The Gaels and Paladins will battle for the 37th Carr-Harris Challenge Cup on Feb. 6 at Slush Puppie Place in Kingston, Ont.
This annual game, which began in 1986 when the Hockey Hall of Fame commissioned the trophy, celebrates the historic competition between our Queen’s Gaels and the Royal Military College (RMC) Paladins and is considered hockey’s oldest rivalry. The rivalry between the Gaels and Paladins dates back to 1886, having only been made into an official, annual game on its 100th anniversary.
Former Gael and Coach Stu Crawford, along with Bill Fitsell, Bill Hamilton, and Ed Grenda, founded the Carr-Harris Cup to honour the first game between the two teams. While Queen’s has historically dominated the outcome of this game, 12 of the games since its inception have been decided by a single goal.
The first-ever game between Queen’s and RMC, resulted in a 1-0 win for the Gaels and took place on the St. Lawrence River, where a group of seven Queen’s students challenged seven Paladins to a game of shinny. Played with no boards and a lacrosse ball carved into a hexagon, Queen’s Lennox Irving scored the first in a long list of game-winners between these two bitter rivals.
Since 1886, hockey itself has blossomed, let alone at Queen’s and RMC. Going from a lake with no boards or concrete bounds, Queen’s and RMC students now fill arenas to watch their teams compete for bragging rights, with the two-point boost to their place in the standings coming second to the boost to their egos.
The Gaels will play the Paladins one last time before their meeting at Slush Puppie Place on Jan. 24 on Paladin home ice. This will be both teams’ last chance to gather intel before the big day. Queen’s enters the rivalry game with a 19-game win streak against the Paladins, a record that spans the past five years.
At the 36th Carr-Harris Cup, the Gaels marched over the Paladins, winning by a six-goal margin and shutting out RMC. A total of 16 penalties were handed out throughout last year’s contest—fitting for an old-fashioned hockey rivalry.
With tensions running high and pride on the line, the Carr-Harris Cup is always a physical game, making it even sweeter when you see a highlight reel play, such as Holden Katzalay’s, ArtSci ’25, third period assist from his stomach last year or either of the two goals scored by Gael-turned-pro, Dalton Duhart, ArtSci ’24.
Goaltender Christian Purboo, ArtSci ’25, posted a shutout in his last performance at a Carr-Harris Cup and is expected to be a key player on Feb. 6. Captain Jack Duff, Comm ’25, and league leader in goals, Nolan Hutcheson, ArtSci ’25, will be back in action after representing the nation’s top university student-athletes at the FISU Games in Italy, w h e r e they won gold alongside Men’s Hockey Head Coach Brett Gibson.
Duff also served as captain of the team. Look for their newfound experience overseas to translate well in the historic game. For more information on the game, and to find tickets, visit the Gaels’ website.
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