Habs goaltender Carey Price stopped to support residential school survivors in Winnipeg ahead of Friday's game

Montreal -

Beloved Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price made an appearance at a demonstration to call attention to survivors and victims of residential school in Winnipeg before Friday’s game.

“Awesome to witness!” wrote demonstrator Musinaw Mistatim to social media, who snapped a picture of the player giving a fist bump to organizer Geraldine Lee Shingoose.

“I gifted him a ribbon & tobacco tie,” wrote Shingoose on her own page. “He was so compassionate and kind.”

Shingoose and other demonstrators had been sitting outside St. Mary’s Cathedral in downtown Winnipeg since earlier that morning.

“We came here this morning, our purpose was to meet with (Winnipeg Archbishop) Gagnon,” said Shingoose, a residential school survivor who says she had requested a meeting with the archbishop.

“I got a message that Bishop Gagnon was going to come,” she said in a video posted online. “So we get her at 11 o’clock, and he’s not here.”

Shingoose and other survivors tied 215 orange ribbons on the fence outside the cathedral, one for each child recently found in an unmarked grave at the Kamloops Residential School.

Shingoose wrote to social media that she is prepared to wait for the archbishops arrival. CTV News reached out to St. Mary’s for comment, and did not immediately receive a response.

Several hours after arriving, “get this,” wrote Shingoose. “The Montreal Canadians just walked by.”

“Did they acknowledge youse?” asked a commenter.

“Yes they did,” responded Shingoose.

Price, from Ulkatcho First Nation, was born in Vancouver in 1987 and raised in Anahim Lake, BC.

Ulkatcho First Nation Chief Lynda Price, his mother, was the first woman elected to the Union of BC Indian Chiefs' executive council.

“He said he would be thinking of us,” said Mistatim, who added that the rest of the players also acknowledged the demonstrators, posing for pictures as they headed to the stadium.

In the game that came after, Price saved 30 shots on goal in Game 2 against the Winnipeg Jets for a final score of 1-0. The Habs now lead the Jets in their playoff series 2-0.