It
was billed as a classic battle between two arch rivals. The date was
Sunday, February 3. The time was 2:30 p.m. The Valley East ‘AAA’
Midget Consbec Cobras were in town to meet the Rayside Balfour Junior
Sabrecats. For the Cobras, it was do-or-die. With three games remaining
the Cobras needed to win all three and hope Kirkland Lake lost their last
two contests. It seemed like an insurmountable challenge, but the Cobras
came to play.
Three
minutes into the game, the Sabrecats drew first blood, but a minute later,
Jason Gauthier scored an unassisted goal for the Cobras to tie it up at 1
to 1. Rayside scored again to take a 2 to 1 lead before Chris King, the
Cobras leading scorer, took a pass from Jason Gauthier to tie it up once
again. Things looked bad when the Cobras Naaman Cooper took a hooking
penalty with seven minutes left in the period. After killing the first
half of the penalty, Chris King mustered up all his courage, picked up a
pass from Mitch Charette in his own end and then skated through the entire
Rayside team to tuck the puck in the net and put Valley East on top 3 to 2
at the end of the first period of play.
The
second period was a fast-paced affair with only three penalties. Rayside
scored the only goal to deadlock the contest at 3 to 3 after two.
The
chippy third period saw Rayside jump in front quickly by a score of 4 to
3. After that it seemed as if nothing the Cobras could do could penetrate
the fantastic goaltending of Adam Malolepszy in the Rayside net. That is,
until with only 1:37 showing on the clock, Naaman Cooper sent a perfect
pass across the front of the goal right on to the stick of Jason Kauffeldt,
who then picked the corner to send the game into overtime, tied at 4 to
4.
For
Valley East, a tie was not enough. It was all or nothing right from the
drop of the puck. The players knew they were in a war. Referee Marty
Kirwan was not going to have this game determined by a penalty. The fans
loved every second of it. The Cobra players gave it everything they had.
After a couple of close calls, the Rayside Balfour Sabrecats closed the
curtain on the season for Valley East when Nick Staneckyj scored his third
goal of the game to give the Sabrecats a hard-fought 5 to 4 overtime
victory.
The
Cobras will finish out of the playoffs this year, but for the fans who
witnessed the contest in Rayside that Sunday afternoon, it was a match
which defined the character of the club. It was a match which left the
fans looking forward to September when the team will once again embark on
a journey which will hopefully see them climb the ladder and make their
mark in the playoffs.
Players
who took to the ice in Rayside included: Martin Perrault, Perry Simon,
Mitch Charette, Brad Hachey, Jason Gauthier, Dustin McLeod, Mike
Armstrong, Jason Kauffeldt, Josh Bigras, Steve Lalonde, Chris King, Eric
Gauvin, Eric Pichette, Matthew Restoule, Naaman Cooper and Michael
Boisvenue. The coaching staff includes: Kevin Kemp (Coach), John Sauve
(Asst. Coach), Darryl Lafrance (Asst. Coach), Dan Lafrance (Manager),
Martin Healey (Manager), and Reg Gagnon (Trainer).
We
congratulate the members of the Valley East Cobras on a good season and
thank them for being true ambassadors of our fine community.
