It can sound obvious, plainly stupid even, but the fact is in the game of hockey somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. There simply is no other way around it and often, winning or losing cannot be controlled. What can be controlled is the level of hard work, grit, intensity and determination that a team puts forward. If you can look in the mirror at the end of the series and say you left everything you had out on the ice, at that point, there is nothing to be ashamed of.
To a man, every single St. Michael’s Buzzers player can honestly say that there was no ounce of energy left in the tank, no element of desire left untapped, no degree of intensity unused. Even though the Buzzers bowed out to the Newmarket Hurricanes in five games after a hard fought 2-0 loss on Thursday night, there is no reason not to walk away with their heads held high after giving the Hurricanes just about all they could handle.
“One hundred per cent, all of us as coaches are really proud of the way the guys stepped up and played their best hockey at the most important time of the year and with the way we competed with the second best team overall in the CCHL as the seventh seed going in,” said Buzzers’ Head Coach Mike DePellegrin. “We emptied the tank every period; we gave them a run every single period and even in this game, I thought we outplayed them for forty minutes, we just couldn’t find a way to score.”
Indeed, the Buzzers may have outplayed the Hurricanes in game five but ultimately it was Newmarket, again, getting a few bounces to go their way. As usual, the Hurricanes, on the strength of a solid defence corps and the spectacular netminding of Jimmy Sarjeant, kept things under control in their own zone. When St. Michael’s did challenge, Sarjeant was able to slam the door stopping all thirty shots he faced for a shutout.
PJ Buys scored what would hold up as the game winning goal at the eleven minute mark of the first period after the Hurricanes forced a rare defensive mistake from St. Michael’s – a turnover in the neutral zone that led to a two on one.
The 1-0 score held up until the 18:27 mark of the third period when Chad Sumsion notched an insurance marker, shovelling in a rebound after Jarred Connolly rang a shot off the cross bar.
In between goals, the netminding was spectacular from both Sarjeant and Joe D’Elia. The veteran Buzzers’ netminder turned in an outstanding performance all series long allowing only nine goals on one hundred and forty four shots for a save percentage of 93.75%. Quite simply, D’Elia’s netminding gave the Buzzers a chance to win every game.
“D’Elia was a guy that we went back and forth with throughout the year with two goalies but he stuck with it through thick and thin and rose to the occasion here when we needed him at the end,” said DePellegrin.
Looking back at the beginning of the season, a young Buzzers squad showed definite signs of improvement by season’s end. Most impressively though was their ability to solidify their defensive play – an area in which they struggled early on in the season – during the playoffs.
“I think the biggest area that really showed in these five games is defence,” said DePellegrin. “We had a line this year that definitely could score and then secondary offense came in spurts throughout the year but I think defensively we learned to shut down pretty well. We carried that from the last week of the regular season and into the playoffs and judging by how we did against Newmarket, it’s a testament to our defensive play so I’m proud of that.”
In addition to D’Elia, three other players saw their Junior A careers come to an end after being bumped from the post season picture. Tyler Forbes, Alex Bezerra and Nick Ciampini, all 1989 born players, were in their final year of junior eligibility but can all move on without regrets having turned in strong efforts during the playoffs.
DePellegrin assessed the contributions of each player.
“Forbes, I know really well, I’m really proud of him. I coached him in high school hockey a while back and I’ve kind of seen him grow through his time at St. Mike’s. I’m really proud of him and I’m glad he came back for this year. Bezerra, I just got to know this year but he’s kind of a coach-in-waiting, he knows the game really well and he’s very analytical about the game. Nick Ciampini, he came into this league after being with the St. Michael’s Majors and is probably one of our most improved players on the team if you think of the role he filled a few years ago as fighter only. Now this year, he was one of our most reliable defensemen.”
The St. Michael’s Buzzers organization would like to extend its congratulations to the Newmarket Hurricanes for their victory in what was a tremendously competitive and entertaining series and wish them all the best going forward in the playoffs.
