Donald Teuma-Castelletti
FORT COULONGE
Dec. 16, 2018
It was a hard-fought and nearly unbelievable comeback, but Sunday evening’s Outaouais Senior A Hockey League (LHSAO) game at the Fort Coulonge Arena gave Pontiac hockey fans plenty of reason to rally behind their local team.
Despite trailing far behind for most of the game, the Pontiac Senior Comets managed to double down and deliver an action-packed second period, before sending the Maniwaki Forestiers packing with a final score of 9-7.
The game started with many blows to the Comets, as the Forestiers took advantage of holes in the home team’s defense throughout the first period. Just over a minute in, Forestier Sam McLaughlin fired in his first of the night, but certainly not his last.
The first period would continue in this fashion, with Maniwaki outpacing the Comets on the scoreboard significantly. While Pontiac’s Guillaume Grégoire and Stéphane Paré offered some redemption, fans could be forgiven if they wrote the game off early, as the period ended 5-2 in Maniwaki’s favour.
Second period would start stronger, as Grégoire fired in another one. That goal was well-earned, as Pontiac play after play would peter out, or be stopped by Maniwaki’s netminder Adam Chalifoux.
All of the Comets’ efforts only emboldened their bench, as they worked harder and harder to make their shots count.
While Maniwaki would follow up Grégoire’s goal with two more, that’s the last that they’d manage that night as the Comets stole the show. Grégoire rounded out his hat trick just over halfway into the period, before Paré sunk his second of the night. Finally, to finish up second period, Maxime Belley chalked up another for the Comets as Maniwaki saw their demise in sight.
The third period saw both teams on the defensive, but the Comets’ Mitchell Gibson set things right when he got his first goal of the night over halfway in. Connor Macleod wasted almost no time with the follow-up, firing in another just seven seconds later.
Finally, Paré put the nail in the coffin with less than two minutes to go, earning his hat trick.
Up next, the Comets host the Vaudreuil Titans on Dec. 22, before rounding out 2018 with a visit to Cornwall on Dec. 29.
