Hunters head into last stretch of season
The Junior C Hunters set up in the offensive zone as they tried to mount an ultimately unsuccessful comeback against the Cornwall Celtics on June 5. Olivier Cadotte The Eastern Door
If all goes right, the 13-4 Junior B Hunters will get a chance to clinch first place in the Eastern Division this week, having played on Thursday against the Gloucester Griffins at home and facing the current first-place Nepean Knights on Saturday night and the Akwesasne Thunder the next night.
Brandon Bordeau, who runs the Baby Blue Memories YouTube channel that has chronicled the Hunters’ great season so far, said that this version of the team has been a joy to watch.
“With some of the talent on that roster and with a goaltender as experienced as Kasey (Lahache), they feel like they can win any game,” said Bordeau.
As opposed to previous seasons, where the Hunters started the season off slow before chaining wins together, this year’s team has been winning from the word go.
Bordeau said the talent up front and the vast improvement of the defense are why.
“I think collectively, their defense has been outstanding this year, the defense has really taken it up a notch,” said Bordeau.
Indeed, they have only given up double digits three times so far.
They’ve also improved a lot on the road. Last season, the Hunters were 2-8 away from the Sports Complex, and while all of their losses are on the road this year, they’ve only lost four games.
Bordeau is excited to see how well this team will perform in the playoffs.
But first, they’ll have to face three division rivals, with Gloucester and Akwesasne being potential first round opponents.
“They’re getting a good look at teams that they may see down the road. I think everyone’s anticipating a Nepean-Kahnawake Eastern conference final, but there’s no easy roads, and every game in the playoffs is a must-win game,” said Bordeau.
“I think they’ve really stepped it up, and they’re going to be very difficult to play against, and hopefully we’re talking about them in early August as well.”
The Junior C Hunters, for their part, sit fourth in their division at 4-7 - but are only two points out of a tie for second place with five games left to go.
They went 1-2 in the last three games of their most recent homestand. On June 5, they lost 13-10 to the Cornwall Celtics, in a game where they found themselves down 5-2 after the first period.
“They just weren’t ready to play,” said head coach Eric Jacobs after the game.
The Hunters did their best to turn the tide in the second and third period, playing a much tighter brand of defense than in the first and outshooting Cornwall 41 to 23 in those periods.
“The players kind of made their own adjustments. They talked amongst each other on the bench, trying to encourage each other. And that wasn’t happening in the first period,” said Jacobs.
“The last 10 minutes of the third were all us. If they would have done that from the first whistle to the last, I’m sure we would have won this game.”
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The key to the next two games would be starting off strong, which they did in both of their weekend games.
Kahnawake beat the Wilmot Wild on Saturday 9-5 in a game that was actually not as close as the score would indicate, as the Hunters found themselves up 8-2 after two periods.
The next day, against the Fergus Thistles, the Hunters once again had the advantage in the opening frame, but penalty troubles in the third led to two power play goals by Fergus and a 7-5 loss for the Hunters.
The Junior C team will have played on Thursday in Akwesasne against the Lightning after The Eastern Door’s publishing deadline, before their last home game of the regular season on Sunday against the Nepean Knights.
