They went up against the best and came oh so close.
Both the LCCVI Boys and Girls Hockey teams ended their OFSAA run as part of the Elite Eight – losing in the quarter finals Wednesday. Both teams played the number one seeds of their tournaments; both came heartbreakingly close to upsetting them.
In Stratford; the girls team took on St. David from Waterloo. LCCVI Coach Scott Watson says before St David took on the Lancer, they’d been dominating their opponents.
The Lancers held them scoreless until the final frame.
“The other team was extremely fast and our girls had to make adjustments,” he tells The Independent. “They continued to step up their level of play every game throughout the tournament.”
“It was 0-0 after first two periods and it seems like St David’s was getting frustrated. Our girls kept battling.”
Watson says the only goal on the game was “scored on a questionable play where our player was taken down by a slew foot. Everyone looked at our player, theirs picked up the puck, passed it out front and scored.”
Watson’s says the game was “very intense. Our girls played so well.”
He added they are an “amazing group of girls” and that he’s “extremely proud. They never waived once all tournament and showed incredible intestinal fortitude. I think our girls surprised a lot of teams in this tournament.”
The 13th ranked LCCVI Boys’ team also surprised a few people at the OFSAA tournament in St Catharines as the Lancers kept place with number one ranked St Mary’s College in Sault Ste. Marie.
The Lancers battled back from a two goal deficit and made it 3-2 late in the third. Coach Chris Edgar says they pulled their goalie, Sean Shanahan, with a minute left in the third and had a very good chance as the puck rang off the post. St. Mary’s College capped the victory with an empty netter.
“They’re a very good team and we played them really hard,” says Edgar.
The coach, who spoke to The Independent as the team prepared to leave St Catharines, said it was a tough loss, but team proved it can play with the best.
“I can’t ask anything more of the boys,” he says, knowing that right now the loss stings. “We can look at that and say, ‘Hey, we did fit in with some of the best teams in the province.”
It was a theme OFSAA organizers emphasized during a banquet, says Edgar, telling the teams “‘just take a moment, just to take it all in and enjoy it while you’re here, because it’s not an easy task to get here.’ So, I think we certainly made the most of that for sure.
“To get here and then see that you got a chance as the week goes on and with the games we are playing and you see what you’re up against; you’re like, ‘Oh, crap, we got a real legit chance here,'” Edgar said. “So now it’s a little bit of a letdown, but yet in the end, we’re pretty happy with what we accomplished. We ended up in the top eight.”
