The Pontiac High School (PHS) Juvenile Boys hockey team has earned a spot in the RSEQ Outaouais league championship game, following a couple of massive playoff victories in Gatineau last week.

On Feb. 3, the Panthers took down . . .

the Carcajous from l’Ecole secondaire Sieur de Coulonge (ESSC) 4-1 in the quarter-finals at the Branchaud-Briere Sports Complex.

A few hours later, the PHS boys throttled the Grande Rivière Cyclones 6-2 to clinch a berth in the finals. Hunter Lukacs-Hitz led the charge for the Panthers offensively with two third-period goals in just over a minute, while Ryan Lang contributed a goal and an assist.

For the gold medal game, the Panthers will face off against the Draveurs from l’Ecole secondaire du Versant at the Branchaud-Briere Sports Complex on March 27.

The team played an eight-game regular season played over four mini-tournaments held in Gatineau from Nov. 11 to Jan. 6.

Despite finishing the season in fifth place out of six teams, with a 3-4-1 record, which included one game where the team was forced to forfeit because it didn’t have enough players, PHS head coach Darcy Findlay wasn’t surprised to see his players show up when it mattered the most.

“I didn’t matter,” he said. “We know our team and we have competitive guys. So, we knew that as long as we made the playoffs, we would be able to show what we can do and even beat some of the other schools.”

With almost two months of separation between games heading into their most important matchup of the season, Findlay admitted that he would prefer to get things done sooner rather than later.

“I don’t know why there’s such a big layoff,” he said. “I wish we could play this week or this weekend. But it’s okay. We’ll be ready.”

Currently in his first year coaching the program, bringing back high-quality hockey to PHS was very important for Findlay and winning a championship right away would be the best way to kick things off.

“You look around the gymnasium and see all the old banners from 85-86 and it’s great to look back and think about the great times we had as a school,” he said. “It’s always nice to see those things. So, it would be great to bring one back for sure.”

Having played for the program during his high school years, he explained that his goal is for PHS to become a desired destination for local high school hockey players and that immediate success against bigger schools is a step in the right direction.

“I want to make it so that kids from McDowell, Campbell’s Bay and even Coulonge, just kids from the nearby schools want to attend PHS because it has a hockey program,” he said.

Seeing how much effort and dedication his team has put towards their success this season, Findlay feels very proud of what his players have accomplished this season and looks forward to seeing if they can achieve the ultimate goal.

“You give it all to the kids,” he said. “They’ve been playing together for so many years and it’s not hard for us to get fired up when we go to the city. We’re just a small school from Shawville but we’re competitive and we really want to show that we can play with the big schools as well.”

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