Paris Mounties season comes to end after 4-1 quarter final series against the Norwich Merchants

MOUNTIES REPORT

With George Le Gresley

The Paris Mounties faced a tough Norwich Merchants team in the first round of the PJHL quarter final playoffs. The Merchants had won 29 of their regular season games compared to Paris’ five wins so the cards were stacked against them in this playoff series. Paris lost the first three games but had a hometown victory to stay alive earlier this week. That playoff run came to an end last night as the team lost 6-2 on the road in Norwich. Back tracking to game one, also in Norwich, the team knew it was going to be a challenge, as goalie Nick Barber was injured and likely out for the rest of the season and goalie Scott Rodrigue was not playing as he had to write a midterm exam that evening. Filling in between the pipes were two alternate players willing to face a Junior C game for the first time in their careers Unfortunately, there wasn’t a miracle on ice happening in Norwich, as the Mounties lost 10-4 Goals for the Mounties came from Grant Eastwood, Cole Main, Bhrett Hibbert and Ethan Bush. Game two was back in Paris and Scott Rodrigue was back in goal (and reported that he did okay on his exam). Xavier Moura opened the scoring to take a first period lead, followed by a Merchants goal to tie the score The Mounties took advantage of a power play opportunity with a Tye Wetzel goal and maintained a 2-1 lead until the end of the first period. Two minutes into the second period, Tyler Hill-Griffeon scored and the Mounties took a 3-1 lead Unfortunately, what followed was four Norwich goals. Xavier Moura scored his second goal of the game, with the period ending with the Norwich Merchants ahead 5-4. The Mounties fought hard to get the tying goal in the third period and to send the game into a possible overtime, however with the Paris goalie pulled, any hope of a tie was erased with an empty net goal by Norwich Overall, the team played hard and earned some respect from the Norwich team and fans.

Game three wasn’t as sharp with Paris on the losing end of a 4-1 marker Norwich opened the first period with two goals, but they didn’t go unanswered as Aidan Switzer found the back of the net In the second and third periods, the Merchants scored a goal in each, rounding out the final score in a penalty laden game.

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The real excitement came in game four back in Paris. The Merchants had a series sweep in mind, and came out hard scoring two unanswered goals in the first period.

The second period started off well for the Merchants, adding a goal four and a half minutes into the period. However, 16 seconds later Grant Eastwood scored to close the gap 3-1

The third period was all Paris in a penalty filled period testing the Mounties' power play and penalty kill teams. Wil Curwen started the goal scoring spree with a power play goal followed by a short-handed goal by Aidan Switzer.

Suddenly it was a tie game The game winner came off the stick of Josh Schell, another power play goal, to claim the lead 4-3. The Merchants pulled their goalie in the last few minutes of the game, but Tye Wetzel sealed the deal with an empty netter. The final score was 5-3

U8 Wolfpack Team 1 wraps up season full of wins, lessons and new friendships

By Casandra Turnbull

The U8 Paris Wolfpack Team 1 is wrapping up its season this weekend and it’s been quite a year for the young squad.

It’s hard to believe that six months ago these players struggled to skate backwards, skate with their heads up and maneuver around a player, let alone stick handle. But with the guidance of coaches Mike Heintzman, Dave Corbett and Dave Deane, these young players are well on their way to executing some fine positional play.

“At the beginning of the year with our team I had intentions of doing just a bit of positional play and our focus would mainly be on edge work, stick skills and shooting,” said Head Coach Mike Heintzman. “As the season progressed, our kids showed they were quick learners and it allowed me to show more positional play knowledge, which will only help them when next year begins.”

As the players graduate to U9, they begin to learn more rules of the game and by the second half of the season they are using full ice Heintzman said the team’s season record, only one loss (excluding tournaments), is a testament to how well team members gelled.

By the second half of the season, they were moving the puck more and trusting one another.

He noted that every individual player experienced some growth. “Losing one game on the season is great but how each player was a coachable player makes it so much fun for a coach,” he said. “Having each player being able to look back at where they started the season and see the result of all the hard work they put in and how it really paid off, while learning to play as a team,” is icing on the cake

Heintzman is new to coaching within the PMHA, but far from new to coaching in general Up to eight years ago, he ran his own hockey academy, which started as learn to skate and developed into a full skills program based out of Kitchener Waterloo. He gave 350 lessons in his first year He’s also ran the Canadian Tire Jump Start program at the Cambridge Muslim Academy. Now he enjoys coaching the teams his children play on.

“All in all, this season for me makes me so proud. The kids were great, the parents were a pleasure and committed to getting their kids to the rink, which only helps the kids out more. The kids did more than I had ever hoped or planned for this year, and I had a blast doing it.”