When the Huntsville Junior C Otters took to the ice against the Stayner Siskins Friday night at the Don Lough arena, they were without two of their regular veteran players, Chris Goodfellow and Matt Smith. Both had been released by the team earlier in the week and cleaned out their lockers Wednesday night.
“There is no doubt that this has been an emotional week for the Otters organization,” coach Brent Tomlinson said earlier in the day. “We have made some very tough decisions in saying goodbye to the two longest serving members of our organization on our active roster. Both Chris and Matt have been valuable members to this franchise and we would like to first and foremost thank them for their contributions to the club over the years and we wish them well.”
The Otters were also without defenceman Quinn Thompson who is nursing a sore shoulder and goaltender Mitchell Jones who is out with a leg injury. Everette Nudd and Dryden Rivet were also sitting out league suspensions.
The Otters lost their eighth straight game 6-3 to the Siskins but both coaches Tomlinson and Marc Gagnon were encouraged by their play especially as they only had 16 players on the bench.
“That was a 60 minute effort,” said Tomlinson. “ We had a real solid first period and then a little bit of a lull in the second, but we kind of thought that we opened it up in the third and got better as the period went along.”
The Otters led 2-1 after the first period but fell behind 5-2 after 40 minutes. Cole Gilligan scored both Huntsville first period goals, while Connor Small got the other in the third period. Tye Sparling faced 36 shots and was named the game’s number two star. Matt Priest was the third star assisting on the early goals.
“I was very happy with the effort,” said coach Marc Gagnon. “ When you look at game one against this team and game three tonight, I can see a big difference. The guys are starting to believe in themselves. They could have folded over in the third period but they didn’t, and they believed in themselves and it showed. They know we believe in them.”
Otter’s Captain Nathan Delarosbil
Team captain Nate Delarosbil admits that it has not been an easy to start the season at 0-8 but he can see light at the end of the tunnel.
“We’re still working hard,” he said. “For the majority of the games we are playing some pretty highly skilled teams. We are giving 100 per cent and I can feel some wins coming soon. The boys are still excited. We’re still trying our best here. Expect some bigger things coming.”
“We have to work on our third periods,” Delarosbil continued. “Our legs tend to give out then against the more skilled teams. We just have to work a little harder. It’s on us and we are going to take responsibility for it, and hopefully turn the season around.”
The Otters hope to soon replace one of the team positions vacated by the earlier releases if not both.
“We’ve been very active in our pursuit,” said Tomlinson who is also the team general manager. “We think we are close to at least filling one of those spots in the next week or so, and that last spot we just may hold on to until we find exactly what we want.”
The win was the Siskins tenth in ten games and keeps them in first place in the division.
The Otters play again Sunday in Mount Forest and Friday October 20 in Midland. Their next home game is against Alliston on Friday October 27.
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