Bronze title crowns ‘dream’ hockey season

In the provincial hockey tournament, the Laurentides Mistral girls’ U12B-3 hockey team battled an undefeated squad, shutting out their opponents until the end of the second period of the semi-final game.

The Mistral team, which includes Kanehsata’kehró:non Charlie Ienonhkwatsheraháwi Nicholas and Harley Ieha’sherenhas Thornicroft, capped their hockey season in the Chevrolet Cup with a bronze following the 4-0 semi-final loss against the Huskies 1 team.

The bronze-medal honour comes on the heels of three tournament wins this year, in what one of the team coaches Jonathan Charette called a “dream season.”

“Probably you won’t have that kind of season again, so live the moment as much as you can,” he recalled telling the team before heading into provincials.

The team started off the Chevrolet Cup with a lot of good energy, said Nicholas.

However, the team lost the first two games 3-0 and 1-0.

In the third game, the Mistral team turned it around, beating the UQTR Patriotes 5-1.

After about three minutes into the second round, Nicholas scored the third goal of the game.

“She’s an energetic player,” said Charette.

Afterwards, the Mistral team collected their second win in the quarter-finals game, overpowering the Mystique Feminin Laval team by 3-1 to secure their spot in the semi-finals.

That’s when Teiawenhniseráhte Jeremy Tomlinson, Kanesatake Health Center executive director and friend of Nicholas’s mom, gave some words of encouragement to Nicholas and Thornicroft.

“To be able to make it even after two losses, to come right back with back-to-back wins in a do-or-die situation, to make it to the semi-finals. I just told the girls, ‘Right now it doesn’t matter what team you’re facing, what you guys know, the facts that you guys know - it’s how good you played all season, how dominant you were in the last two games.

“So bring that down on the ice with you and play one play at a time, one shift at a time, one period at time. That’s all that counts,” he said.

This was Thornicroft’s first time playing in a hockey team, said Paige O’Brien, Thornicroft’s mother. In fact, Thornicroft only learned how to skate last August.

“It’s just nice to see her evolve and her confidence grow and still have so much fun on the ice,” said O’Brien.

“I’m really proud of Charlie and Harley and they went out there and just battled their hearts out and played the best hockey that I’ve seen them play all season,” said Tomlinson.

After the semi-final loss, O’Brien told her daughter, “Be After the semi-final loss, O’Brien told her daughter, “be proud of yourself. You guys came there to win. You won, didn’t win gold, but you still won. You didn’t leave not winning.”

Patricia Kahentanó:ron Gabriel, Nicholas’s mother, said watching Nicholas gain confidence in herself and push herself to do better at the games made all those long weekends spent driving to the arena worth it.

“To see her accomplish all these things and being proud of herself, I can’t ask for more,” said Gabriel.

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Hadassah Alencar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter