Like father, like sons

Putting up points is a family affair for the MacArthurs, with youngest son Colby the latest to take up the mantle of scoring champion in the Maritimes

Quinton Amundson

May 27, 2022

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2022 Centennial Cup

Rodney MacArthur woke up to a pleasant surprise to begin his May 24.

He received an email containing the 2022-23 schedule for the Union College men’s hockey team.

The prospect of venturing down to Schenectady, New York, this autumn to watch his youngest son Colby’s freshman NCAA season fills the hockey dad with enthusiasm.

“It will be a great step as this is a level in the game he has never played,” says Rodney. “Colby thinks he is up to the challenge, and so do we. We’re so excited, and we plan on taking trips to New York to support him.”

Conversations between Rodney and Colby about the latter’s new, exciting chapter of his hockey career will undoubtedly take place in the days to come.

Right now, the 20-year-old’s sole focus is helping the Summerside Western Capitals to national glory at the 2022 Centennial Cup, presented by Tim Hortons, in Estevan, Sask.

“I’m not looking past the two weeks of this competition,” says Colby, who led the Maritime Hockey League (MHL) with 57 assists and 75 points during the regular season. “We are at nationals to win it. My family is here to support me, and all the conversations are about hockey and how I’m playing.”

Colby’s preliminary-round performance indicates the attitude of laser-focused intensity is translating to the ice on the big stage. He registered two goals and four assists for a team-leading six points in four games and was named the tournament’s most sportsmanlike player. His overtime goal in a 4-3 decision over the Ottawa Jr. Senators on Wednesday afternoon vaulted his squad into a quarterfinal showdown against Collège Français de Longueuil.

One of the driving forces fueling the young man’s point-producing prowess and clutch-play performances is confidence that hockey excellence is in the MacArthur family DNA.

Rodney and older brother Brodie, 23, attained one and two league scoring titles, respectively, during their Junior A careers on P.E.I. Rodney, now the principal of Queen Elizabeth Elementary School in Kensington, captured the Island Junior Hockey League (IJHL) points crown in 1988-89 with the Charlottetown Abbies. Suiting up for Summerside, Brodie won the MHL scoring race in 2018-19 (110 points) and 2019-20 (108 points). His 357 career points in 196 games are the most in league history.

Brodie, playing for the University of Prince Edward Island since 2020, has a pass-first mentality like his younger brother – 215 of his points for the Western Capitals were assists.

Supporting Colby from home in P.E.I during the Centennial Cup, Brodie shares how Rodney instilled within his sons a desire to play unselfish, two-way hockey.

“He coached us both growing up and whenever there were games when the score was out of hand, he would ask us to complete three passes before attempting to score. That is where that pass-first play really first started.”

Colby says he appreciates Rodney’s commitment to help he and Colby elevate their craft, which was on display from their earliest backyard rink days.

“He put us through drills that I don’t think many kids would have been doing at four or five years old like triangle stickhandling and using angles and boards as a playmaker. He wanted the best for us. I could not have asked for a better father.”

Like individual accolades, team championships evidently magnetize towards the MacArthur brothers, too. Colby has won nine straight league titles dating back to his U11 days, and Brodie accrued a slew of championships, including first place at the 2012 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament.

Sibling backyard rink battles nurtured Colby and Brodie’s tenacity.

“He’s the reason I am so competitive,” says Colby. “Even when I was younger and five inches shorter, he would still hit me as hard as he could when we battled in the corner. We pushed each other to be stronger.”

Now, in adulthood, Colby has the height advantage at 6-foot-3, three inches taller than Brodie and bigger than Rodney, too. He has capitalized on his towering frame to play a more physical brand of hockey than his father and brother.

Rodney is proud of the player Colby has become.

“I would say he was a better skater, smoother than I was. And I would say he was a better all-around player too. He is great at both ends and is strong on faceoffs.”

Brodie says his brother’s trajectory as a player continues to trend upward.

“Every year he plays he gets better. He’s always had good hockey skill, vision, a desire to win and the ability to work hard. He has improved on his shot, speed and overall game. I expect him to keep going that way.”

Under the guidance of head coach Billy McGuigan, who was Brodie’s coach and the stick boy for Rodney’s Abbies, Colby will attempt to become a MacArthur pioneer. He would become the first member of his family to win Canada’s National Junior A Championship.

He has the support of Rodney, Brodie, mother Kim and older sister Brooke as he pursues this feat.