Hockey match tonight! Hockey match tonight!

As a boy, Albert Armstrong and his friends would march through Shawville streets, voices carrying this rallying cry to fill the barn for that night’s Shawville Pontiacs game. 

“We had this great big bell that we could make lots of noise and walk through every street,” Armstrong said, adding that his rabble-rousing efforts got him free admission to the games. 

The senior Pontiacs later turned into a Junior B team, and Armstrong went on to coach and later serve as president. In 2015, after over 30 years as a junior team, the Pontiacs franchise folded in a league-wide cut. 

But on Friday, Armstrong and about 500 other fans were in attendance as the iconic black-and-gold jerseys made their return to the Shawville ice for the first time in a decade. 

Since the Junior B team left in 2015, local fans have been wanting for high-flying hockey action. This itch was briefly scratched last season when Fort-Coulonge team the Pontiac Senior Comets played a series of games in town, drawing big crowds. 

The response convinced Darcy Findlay, a Bristol native who played and coached the Comets at that time, that a team could work here once again. When the opportunity came up this summer, he purchased the team and relocated it to Shawville under the Pontiacs name.

Findlay said it was hard to see a town so synonymous with hockey be without its own team. 

“It was sad to see the organization unable to move forward. [ . . . ] It was pretty much just stolen away from the community, and it’s something that’s been missed,” he said. 

The old days 

Many local players have donned Pontiacs colours over the years. The original senior teams of the 1950s and ‘60s boasted Shawville legends like Frank Finnigan Jr.. Bryan Murray, Shawville’s famous son who went on to coach and later act as general manager of the Ottawa Senators, got his hockey start as a player with the team. 

Armstrong, who was often in the stands in those years, said the team’s games were a spectacle well-attended by people in town and across the entire Pontiac. 

“It meant a lot to the town [ . . . ] there were a lot of people that relied on being able to watch hockey in the wintertime,” he said. 

Armstrong said he appreciated going to the games to see the skill of the players, the rivalries, and of course the fights. 

“I liked the spectacle of the competition, the hoopla, the excitement that came from it [ . . . ] We were the enemy to you and we’re going out to do whatever it takes to win,” he said.

He said it was also about the social aspect of the game, getting to hang out with friends, and meet new people. 

“It was the meaning of going out and saying hello to as many people that you knew or met,” he said.

When the team became the Shawville Junior Bs, it also had an impact on a generation of youth who idolized the young players on the ice. 

Findlay himself was among the young hockey fanatics who spent time around the rink in the early years of the Junior Bs, helping his grandfather “Fish” Findlay, the team’s longtime equipment manager, and his grandmother, who ran the penalty box. 

He said for many kids of his generation, going to the hockey game was just what you did on a Friday night.

“I spent my Fridays and my Sundays at the rink with the juniors, and I got to live that experience as a kid, as many people my age did [ . . . ] we grew up watching the Junior Bs,” he said.

The comeback 

Steve Beck, a former Pontiacs player who skated for the team in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, decided to make his return to the team after over 20 years of playing men’s league hockey. 

“Call it a midlife crisis, one last kick at the can, I’m not sure. I thought I was capable so I thought I’d give it a shot,” he said. 

He said before the team’s first game of the season against Manotick on Oct. 3, he and Shawville native Shane Powell shared a look before donning the Pontiacs jerseys for the first time in a while  

“We sat beside each other in the locker room and it was pretty cool, when the Pontiacs jerseys finally got over our heads we were both hooked. We were vibrating and ready for the game,” he said. 

Beck, a Pontiac native, said that while he is raising his family in Fitzroy Harbour, he is hoping the team can stick around so that local players can put their talents on display. 

“I’d like to  see the team sustained for future years. There’s young kids within the community that are off playing high level hockey, and I’d like to be around for them to eventually be a part of the roster,” he said. 

Findlay said that is part of what he is trying to accomplish by giving an experience to everyone in the community, be they former players, young minor hockey players, or casual fans looking for something to do. 

“It’s something for our minor hockey kids to look forward to, it’s a family gathering, and there’s not a lot of things that go on on a Friday night around here,” he said. 

Team claims first win on home ice

Friday night’s home opener was well received by the crowd as the home team held off their Ottawa Valley opponents the Arnprior Rivermen by a score of 7-1. 

Before the opening puck drop, a group of Indigenous drummers called the Eagle River Singers performed a song to get the crowd pumped up. One member of the group, Yancey Thusky, is a former member of the Pontiac Junior B team in the mid-2000s.

“Shawville was and is still is a hockey town,” he said.

The team was met with raucous applause all night from fans including Armstrong, who was impressed with the level of play in the new Northern Premier Hockey League. 

“It’s real good hockey. It was comparable to what the senior team was in Shawville in years past,” he said. 

Findlay, who was behind the bench as the team’s head coach, said the response from the home crowd was phenomenal. 

“It was amazing to see 500 people and the rowdiness and the kids and the fans cheering and engaged like way back in the day,” he said. 

Armstrong said while he no longer totes around a bell, he’s still encouraging everyone to come check out the action. “It was a real good night,” he summed up. “It was quite something, the canteen being open, cheering for your home team.” 

The second game of the Pontiacs’ weekend slate came on the road against the team’s Quebec rival, the Paugan Falls Rapids. After Shawville surrendered a tally in the game’s first minute, the team fought back to score seven goals while only surrendering two more. As the final horn sounded, the Pontiacs led 7-3. 

Findlay said he is excited for what this season has in store, adding that his team has a deep roster made up of young talented players, some of whom still haven’t suited up yet. 

“Our captain [Quinn O’Brien] isn’t going to start playing until this week at home. I’ve signed a new guy. So we haven’t even had our lineup,” he said. 

The Pontiacs now sit with two wins and a single loss this season, and will return home this Friday, Oct. 17, to face the South Stormont Mustangs.