J.D. POTIÉ
Mont-Tremblant
Oct. 19, 2019
After a dominant performance the previous weekend, the Pontiac Senior . . .
Comets fell 6-3 on the road against the Outaouais Senior AA Hockey League’s (OSAAHL) new expansion team the Mont-Tremblant Diables on Saturday night.
In the first period, the Comets came out strong and were rewarded for it, as centreman David Croteau potted his first goal of the season just under three minutes into the frame.
In the second, the Comets offense struck again six and a half minutes in, as captain Darcy Findlay sniped his second of the season, assisted by Matthew Warren.
Just before the mid-way point of the period, the Diables answered with a goal of their own, bringing the Comets advantage to 2-1.
Less than a minute later, Comets’ forward Stephen Blunden made it a 3-1 game with his first goal of the year assisted by Stéphane Paré.
But, the Diables showed resilience as they notched back to back goals in the space of five minutes to make it a 3-3 game going into the third.
In the final frame, things started to get out of hand for the Comets who had no response after allowing three straight goals en route to a 6-3 defeat. Comets defenseman Matt Sarazin received a five-minute major with just over five minutes left in the game.
After the loss, Comets’ head coach Jean-Francois Lavergne said he liked his team’s energy in the early stages of the game, stating that his team largely dominated the second period.
However, he blamed their third period collapse on complacency and a lack of cohesion. All in all, he took note of it as a lesson learned.
“We thought it was going to be easy,” he said. “That made it hard to keep our rhythm.”
While overconfidence played a factor in the result, he didn’t shy away from giving credit to the victors, praising their hard work and resilience.
“We have to give it to Mont-Tremblant,” he said. “Their team is very hard-working. They never quit. They’re a team that never gives up and they kept applying the pressure. They played very well. I’m not taking anything away from them.”
With complacency, came individualism and with that came a lot of mental errors, Lavergne said. Going forward, the team is going to have to focus on keeping the game simple and not straying away from their gameplan.
“Those were our big mistakes,” he said. “We tried to do the highlight of the night instead of just taking pucks to the net.”
Gearing up for a matchup against a Maniwaki Forestiers team who, at 3-1, have won their last two games and should be hungry for revenge after a 7-2 thrashing at the hands of the Comets, Lavergne stressed the importance of his team coming out strong and avoiding complacency.
“I don’t think we dominated them that much,” he said. “The score line makes it look worse than it actually was. I think we maybe caught them by surprise, by scoring five goals. I don’t think they expected that at the start.”
He believes the team needs to take into account that the Forestiers they will meet on Saturday will look much different than the ones they clashed with a couple of weeks ago.
“Maniwaki now knows how we can play,” he said. “I don’t think they’ll make the same mistake of not showing up in the first period against us.”
He said his team needs better preparation if they want results to go their way in this league.
While they had a favourable result last time out, Lavergne knows that the Forestiers are no slouches – touting them as the team to best in the OSAAHL.
“I evaluated things when I first started and I think Maniwaki is the team to beat in our league,” he said. “So, for sure, until our very last game, we were very motivated to beat them. Now, they’re motivated to beat us. We just need to have a good start because this is probably going to be our toughest matchup of the season.”
The Comets next game will be against the Maniwaki Forestiers at home on Oct. 26 at 8 p.m.
