Donald Teuma-Castelletti
FORT COULONGE
Sept. 30, 2018
Cheers from the sidelines erupted Sunday evening at the Fort Coulonge arena, as the Pontiac Senior Comets’ Adrian Moyes ended a tense overtime period with less than 30 seconds left on the clock.
It was a game filled with back and forth action, some fisticuffs and plenty of penalties, but the Comets narrowly overcame the Maniwaki Forestiers at the home team’s second exhibition game.
While first period saw the Comets hit their stride from the get-go, leading 2-1 for the majority of the game, the third period proved a rougher go. Minutes in, the Forestiers outpaced the Comets, taking a two-point lead.
The Comets’ Joshua Snider, assisted by Matt Sarazin, proved the team’s redeemer, scoring 15 minutes into the third. Two minutes later, Stephane Paré fired in another, leveling the playing field, with an assist from Francis Desforges.

Then, just as the clock was winding down in overtime, Moyes delivered that fatal blow with an assist from James Kirkwood. The crowd’s excitement mirrored their home team’s, as the night ended on a high note when the Comets won 5-4.
With the start of the season beginning Oct. 6, when the Comets take on the Cumberland Bandits in Ottawa, team manager Danick Boisvert reflected on what his team is doing right.
“I think, from my perspective, we’ll have a really good team,” said Boisvert, adding that the roster is mostly finalized now. “Very disciplined, very good atmosphere in the room, we have some leaders on the team. There’s some guys from all over the place so right now they’re trying to get to know each other a little bit and I think it’s going really well. The guys are motivated to play some good hockey like that.”
After a disappointing loss in their first exhibition match on Sept. 23, Boisvert himself donned the goalie setup, and will continue as the starting goalie for the season, as originally planned. In the net, Boisvert gets an excellent view of where the team is succeeding.
“Our strength right now is pretty much speed,” he said. “What we need to work on is maybe a little [depth] in the defensive zone. I think our defence played really well last night, but we’ll have to work on some things in our zone also.”
He highlighted two former University of Ottawa players, Mitchell Gibson and Johnny Cormier, as contributing to their speed, adding he was very impressed in the overtime period.
“Last night, the three-on-three at the end, you could tell we had a lot more speed than Maniwaki,” said Boisvert. “They didn’t touch the puck at all.”
As well, Boisvert was surprised at the turnout for these exhibition matches, saying around 400 people attended Sunday’s game. After working as hard as he and his team did to make this a reality for Fort Coulonge, he’s proud to see his community in the sidelines, and looks forward to their support in the season to come.
At the moment, however, his focus remains on the guys in front of him, as the team continues to work together ahead of their game on Saturday.
“They’re coming out of the beer league to play in a league like this, the guys are like kids, eh?” said Boisvert. “So it’s really impressive to see the room of guys, they’re cheering, they’re giving their feedback, it’s really positive right now.”