The 2019-20 Pontiac Senior Comets have moved into first place in the Outaouais Senior AA Hockey League (OSAAHL) standings after completely obliterating the . . .

second place Mont-Laurier Montagnards 14-2 in front of their own fans.

A showdown of the top two teams in the league, both headed into the game with a chance to take over the number one seed, so it was important to come out strong and play a consistent 60 minutes.

In the first period, the Comets struck quickly, as Olivier Donovan opened the scoring just under six minutes in, with his fourth of the season, assisted by d-man Maxime Belley.

Around six minutes later, Alek Deblois doubled the Comets’ advantage with his fourth tally on the campaign, assisted by Justin Lafleur and Benoit Nadon.

Mont-Laurier cut the Comets advantage to one less than 20 seconds later.

But the Comets didn’t take long to strike back, as forward Guillaume Grégoire notched his sixth goal of the season, around a minute later, to make it 3-1.

A couple of minutes later, hometown Comet Connor Romain scored his first career goal, assisted by Ryan Peck to make it 4-1.

With less than four minutes left in the frame Matthew Warren extended the Comets’ lead with his league-leading 14th goal of the season on the powerplay, before Donovan scored his second of the night to make it 6-1 going into the first intermission.

In the second period, the Comets didn’t relent one bit, as Donovan completed the hat trick with a powerplay marker, just over five minutes in to make it 7-1.

With around six minutes left in the frame, Grégoire potted his second of the game, assisted by Comets’ leading point producer Justin Charbonneau.

In the closing stages of the frame, Nadon helped make it 9-1 Comets with his second of the year, assisted by Romain.

Heading in the third with the game very well wrapped up, the Comets didn’t slow down the pace and continued its offensive onslaught.

Exploding for five more goals, including two from Charbonneau and another for Donovan, the Comets ended the game, scoring a franchise record 14 goals against Mont-Laurier’s deuce.

The Comets’ 12-goal margin of victory also marked the highest in league history.

After the game, Comets’ head coach, Jean-François Lavergne, said that while the score line doesn’t realistically reflect their opponent, he was thrilled with how his team came out strong and shut down a typically potent Montagnards offense.

“I think Mont-Laurier had a bad one in their system,” he said. “We played a really good game. We started well, were hard on the puck and profited from our chances.”

“They were missing their number one goalie,” he added. “That had an impact on the game.”

While goals scoring came aplenty, Lavergne felt like his team’s defensive presence was the biggest factor in the result, noting that most of the team’s goals came via counter attacks.

Lavergne explained that coming to play on Mont-Laurier’s international-sized ice surface, his team designed a game plan made to stop their opponent from doing their magic offensively.

“They’re used to playing there,” he said. “I really liked the way we reacted to their offense to counter them.”

“I think it was our best game that we’ve played since the start of the season,” he added. “From A to Z, three intense periods, we didn’t take a break, we played well defensively, we took care of our opportunities on offense. Overall it was positive.”

For the next game, the Comets will face the Montagnards at home on Feb. 1 for a rubber match after trading wins in their previous two meetings.

Looking forward to the tilt, Lavergne said his players won’t need much extra motivation if any, knowing that Mont-Laurier is more than capable of returning the favour with a convincing performance of their own.

“We know that they’re waiting for us solidly,” he said. “They’ll want to take revenge on us. What we want is to perform as well as we did, knowing that they will perform well. Their number one goalie should be in net too.”

“Yes. It’s a nice win,” he added. “But we need to stay grounded. Next game on Saturday it restarts at 0-0 and those 14 goals mean nothing.”

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