End of the line
Screaming Eagles fought to the end in series sweep by Islanders
The season is over for a young Cape Breton Screaming Eagles team that surprised many with their play on the ice.
Cape Breton suffered a 5-2 setback to the Charlottetown Islanders on Thursday at Centre 200 in a four-game sweep of their best-of-seven Quebec Major Junior Hockey League quarter-final series.
“We had a lot of young guys and there was a lot of work done for the result that we had,” said team captain Olivier LeBlanc, who played his final game with Cape Breton on Thursday. “We have a great group of guys and all year, I said the chemistry on this team is very good and probably the best I’ve ever seen.”
The Screaming Eagles entered the 2016-17 season with a rookie-laden roster in a transition year, as is the case with major-junior hockey. The team was led by overagers Giovanni Fiore, Massimo Carozza and LeBlanc, and with a crop of rookies like Drake Batherson, Vasily Glotov, Leon Gawanke and Adam McCormick showing veteran form.
“It felt really good proving everyone wrong and proving that we could compete in this league and we did all year,” said 18-year-old Declan Smith of Antigonish. The Cape Breton West Islanders alumnus finished with four goals and five assists in 11 playoff games.
“Everyone just had fight and everyone believed in this group of guys. I found it was a very
successful season and I’m very proud.”
Cape Breton finished seventh in the league standings with a 39-25-2-2 record, one win more than last season. That meant a first-round meeting with the 10th place Gatineau Olympiques, a series the Screaming Eagles won in overtime of Game 7.
In the league quarter-final, Cape Breton faced a Charlottetown team built to contend for a league title and a berth in the Memorial Cup this season. But the Screaming Eagles put up a fight in every game against the heavily favoured Islanders squad.
“We’re built for the now, and I think (the Screaming Eagles) will have a lot of bright days ahead when you look at what some of their young players did,” said Islanders head coach Jim Hulton.
Screaming Eagles head coach and general manager MarcAndré Dumont was proud of his team for the way they never gave up all season, and believed the fans felt the same.
Cape Breton’s roster included four 16-year-olds who were among 11 players on the team who made their post-season debuts, all earning valuable playoff experience in the process.
“It’s a group that was fun to coach because they would never give up, they would keep going and keep going and that resiliency is obviously a sign of good leadership from our leadership group and our older guys,” he said. “I’m proud of what this group accomplished and they can go back home with their heads up high.”
As for next season, Dumont said the team will still be young, with between eight to 10 players either 16 or 17 years of age. The club will also benefit from two first-round picks and three second-round picks in the QMJHL draft in June.
“We’re going to have a similar team that we had this year and it’s all going to be about how we play and how we compete,” he said.