M’CHIGEENG—Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Both Manitoulin Secondary School (MSS) hockey teams have officially ended their seasons in the league playoffs, with the girls’ team ending in second place overall.
“It was one of the weirdest games I’ve ever coached. The hockey gods were definitely not on our side that day,” said girls’ team coach Mike Meeker of the first playoff game in the best-of-three series.
“We outplayed them badly and outshot them 35 to five; one of our parents was keeping track. To make it even more weird, a lot of those 35 were really good chances in front of the net,” Mr. Meeker said.
The game ended in a 1-0 loss for the Mustangs, a conclusion Mr. Meeker said might have indicated the strength of St. Benedict’s goalie. However, although he commended her performance, he said the Mustangs had many shots that should have been easy to hit but they did not score, instead hitting the goalposts or missing the net entirely.
“The goal (St. Benedict’s) got was really weird too. It hit the goalie’s glove and bounced up over onto her head and rolled down her back into the net. It was one of those freaky goals,” Mr. Meeker said.
“Sometimes you’re snake-bit. That’s the game of hockey, sometimes you miss a lot of chances and can’t score. When you have that many, usually it doesn’t last the whole game and you’ll get lucky and have at least one go in. But it didn’t happen,” said Mr. Meeker. “We were all in shock after the game. The fans, me, other coaches, parents—everybody was kind of in shock.”
The next game was at Countryside Arena in Sudbury with its massive ice surface compared to home ice in M’Chigeeng. It was a tight series of back-and-forth goals with each team slowly building their goals throughout the game. They ended up tied heading into overtime.
“It was a typical round, three-on-three for five minutes. In the first 30 seconds, Hailey had a breakaway, deked out the goalie with a really nice move, went to tuck it in on her backhand and the goalie—I have to give her credit—made a good save with her pads,” Mr. Meeker said.
Into the still-scoreless overtime period, the referee gave the Mustangs a penalty which Mr. Meeker said should not have been warranted. Two girls hit each other and fell down, and the St. Benedict’s player lost her stick. Mr. Meeker said his player was trying to slide the stick back to her in a goodwill gesture, despite his calls to get back into the play. The referee gave the Mustangs’ player a penalty for interference.
Playing short-handed proved disastrous for the Mustangs and in short order, their playoff bid had come to an end.
“The convenor Dave Makela said that it was a really good hockey game to watch. There was good action at both ends and in the second game we played fairly evenly, just like the score would suggest,” said Mr. Meeker.
Although the loss was upsetting after the Mustangs’ perfect season, Mr. Meeker said he and his coaching team as well as the girls were already thinking of next year and how they could build upon the strength of this season.
“I don’t really care how it ended. They were a great group of girls. They got along with each other and even with the pressure on and it all came down to ‘win or go home,’ they still didn’t get after each other and there was no conflict. They pulled together right to the very end with that overtime goal,” Mr. Meeker said. “I’m really happy with the way they stuck together, which is typical of Manitoulin girls.”
“In every way, they were just a joy. Mel (Cheng, team manager) and Corey (Karn, assistant coach) thought the same. Corey was a great addition as assistant coach and Mel did a great job with the paperwork and permits; that’s a nightmare,” said Mr. Meeker.
“One of the girls was asking me afterwards, ‘how come you coach, because you don’t have a daughter on the team?’ I replied, ‘I’m really boring. All I do is work and you girls are my fun.’ They’re my hobby. It’s not always perfect, but I really enjoy it,” he said.
Boys’ team coach Steve Doane told The Expositor that the team’s third and final game was representative of the whole season.
“We came out well and took the play to Lockerby in the first 10 minutes of the first period but couldn’t put one past the goaltender. They made the most of their opportunities and pretty soon we found ourselves down 3-0. We didn’t have a strong second period but bounced back to have a strong third, but could only put two goals behind the Lockerby goalie. They did a good job of limiting our quality chances,” he said.
Mr. Doane was ejected from the game during the first period over a disputed call so assistant coach Jordan Smith took over from the bench for the rest of the game.
“The boys stayed classy and played hard right to the end and there was no monkey business, so Mr. Smith and I were proud of them for their effort,” Mr. Doane said.
Overall, Mr. Doane said the season could have turned out better and he was disappointed with the results.
“We have enough talent on this Island to challenge for the A Division as we have in years past. At times, we showed flashes of the team that we could have been and at other times we lacked consistency,” he said.
In general, he said the team was good to be around and everyone seemed “happy and coachable for the most part.”
“They were a fun group and we wish them well going forward with their education and careers,” he said.
Mr. Doane told The Expositor that he was unsure about the future of the team.
“Mr. Smith and I are considering a pause to re-evaluate the level of commitment to the program. To compete against the Sudbury schools, you need a very high level of commitment from the entire group,” said Mr. Doane.
He said that means having players who are committed to being athletes over the whole year, including taking care of their bodies, making sure their academics stay sharp and training hard, even in the off-season.
“It means shooting pucks and training your body all summer long and really wanting it. It means coming to camp in shape and ready to go,” said Mr. Doane, adding that the amount of commitment he sees during this coming off-season will largely determine the team’s future.
“There are a lot more things to distract young athletes these days and these distractions all add up. You can only do so many things well,” he said.
“As a coach, you get to the point after so many years of putting a lot of your time, energy and passion into something, and if you get mediocre results you begin to say, ‘maybe it’s time to do something else.’ Time to let someone new step up and see if they can get a different result,” said Mr. Doane.
Regardless of the end results, both the boys’ and girls’ teams proved through this season that if they stay committed, they have the ability to be strong contenders in the league. Manitoulin Island will surely be watching closely to see how next season may shape up. The Manitoulin Expositor congratulates all the players for their efforts this season and wishes them well through the off-season. Well done, Mustangs!
