M’CHIGEENG—After a tougher than normal month for the Manitoulin Secondary School (MSS) boys’ hockey team, the Mustangs defeated Confederation Friday night on home turf, securing a spot in the A division finals next month as well as a berth at the Northern Ontario Secondary School Athletics (NOSSA) championships in March.
“We had a couple of tough losses in January,” admitted Mustangs coach Brad Bond, “and we needed a win or a tie to get into the playoffs.”
The boys in gold and black did just that, beating Confederation by a score of 5-4 on Friday night at the Little Current barn.
With exam time upon MSS, the team gets a slight break until the final day of exams when they pack up that very afternoon for a tournament in Burlington from February 3 to 5. The Mustangs then get down to the order of playoff business, facing off against St. Charles in a best-of-three showdown. Coach Bond said he is hoping to see the second game of that series played in Little Current but hasn’t firmed it up just yet.
The winner of that series plays the winner of the Confederation/Lockerby series. (Notre Dame is now out of play with the Mustangs’ Friday night win.) The top two teams then decide whether they wish to play at the NOSSA AA championship or the NOSSAA AAA championship. The losing two teams take the remaining division championship spot.
“The guys are pumped,” Mr. Bond said of his team’s playoff advancement. “It’s quite an accomplishment.”
