Home | Article Archives | Entertainment | Classifieds | Contacts | Newspaper Archives | Media Kit | Subscription | Email Us |
Laval Liberty High School’s hockey Panthers returned last Monday evening from a series of games in Atlanta, Georgia, with five victories out of six matches to their credit. The Panthers went south on an exchange with teams made up of the best high school hockey players from several U.S. states, including Tennessee and Florida, where a surprising amount of hockey talent is being farmed these days.
NHL drafts students in U.S.
“It’s a building process,” Panthers coach Chris Lemay said about the excursions his players have been making in recent years as part of the process for boosting individual and team spirit. “It also gives us an idea of why the Americans are so successful. How come they’re so successful in bringing their players up to the NHL level, while we’re not? A lot of NHL players are drafted from the high school level, while us it’s not really the Scase.”
However, all that is apart from the fundamental purpose of the Laval Liberty sports program, of which hockey is an important component. Students are expected to maintain their grades well above an average to continue participating in a chosen sport. The Laval Liberty players won the first five games of their series in Atlanta. By the sixth, however, they seem to have tired, according to Lemay. “They made new friends and learned about the way of life of the Americans, how they live and play hockey and go to school,” he said.
Tired by sixth game
In play, the Panthers won some matches by as much as eight goals over the adversaries. But by the last game, the score was tied 3-3 towards the end of the third period. The Panthers ended up losing by one point. The team is now approaching the end of the season. All the same, the players continue to focus on academics to maintain their grades. Next Monday, they are playing on home ice.
After that, hopefully they’ll qualify for regional and provincial play. One of the key players on any hockey team is the goaltender. The Panthers have two goalies: Thomas Bakoyanis, and Charlie Lapointe, a female netminder. “He did very well,” Lemay said of Bakoyanis. “He had a very high average of goals-against, and so did the other goalie. We have a very strong team so that’s why we didn’t allow a lot of goals.”