Canadiens up for new challenge

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This article was published 13/12/2019 (2357 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadiens don’t shy away from a challenge.

This season, the Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau boys hockey team made the jump to the second tier Winnipeg Free Press Division after years of finishing among top teams in the Price Division.

“It’s more challenging, but I think we’re holding our own,” said team captain Carson Allaire, a Grade 12 defenceman who has been with the CPET team since Grade 9. “We have some new players who are helping us out this year, and some returning strong players. We’ve jelled. We have guys out there grinding, everyone knows their job and we’re doing what we need to do to win.”

Head coach Stephen Grégoire agreed that nearly halfway through the Winnipeg High School Hockey League regular season, the boys have been up to the challenge.

“The biggest difference for us, is last year our best players could walk a team. But that’s not the case this year,” Grégoire said. “Now that they’ve realized that, they’re using the players around them to create some space.”

Fourteen games into the 30-game schedule at press time, the Canadiens have 17 points after winning four games in regulation, another in overtime, and picking up points in one OT loss and two shootout losses. Of the Canadiens six regulation losses, three were one goal games.

“I don’t think our record necessarily indicates how well we’ve been playing,” Grégoire said. “Every game has been close.”

“We’re not out of place,” added Allaire, who has scored two goals and six assists in his first 14 games. “We give the top teams a run for their money.”

Both Grégoire and Allaire credit the Canadiens work ethic with the on-ice success they’ve achieved thus far.

“Work ethic is a huge thing, and we’ve been getting a lot of scoring depth and scoring from the back end,” Grégoire said.

“We have a good hard-working team trying to give it 120 per cent every shift,” Allaire said. “We just can’t find the back of the net in some games.”

Adhering to the “four tenets of CPET hockey” has also been important for Allaire and his teammates.

“That’s ‘class, perseverance, effort and teamwork,’” explained the captain. “I think our team is doing a good job or following that and staying true to those values.”

With half the regular season left following a Dec. 16 game against Pinawa, both Grégoire and Allaire are confident that if the Canadiens continue to play the right way, the bounces will eventually go their way and result in some sustained success.

“Big thing is we’ll need to compete for the full three periods,” Grégoire said. “The past couple games have been great. The team is starting to buy into the system.”

“We’ve got high hopes,” Allaire added.

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112

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