GRANBY, Québec – The Trois-Rivières Caron et Guay spent most of the season at the top of the standing of the Ligue nord-américaine de hockey. The team gave up the first place at the very last weekend of the season to the Sherbrooke Saint-François.
Still, Trois-Rivières was a favorite at the beginning of the playoffs. But everything went wrong for the Caron et Guay in the first round, a wild round robin tournament involving the six LNAH teams. Trois-Rivières went 1-5 and did not make the cut, so as the same for the Thetford Mines Isothermic.
Only 512 fans showed up at the last Caron et Guay game, who were already eliminated. Trois-Rivières fans wanted the Futura Cup, and nothing else, this year.
“Summer will be so long”, said co-owner, general manager and coach Dean Lygitsagos in Le Nouvelliste daily paper. “We played great hockey all season long, we were the best team at home and on the road. Yes, I’m proud of what we did in the regular season. And that’s why our elimination in the first round is so disappointing…”
Of course, Lygitsagos did talk a bit about those injuries which significantly hurt Trois-Rivières’ line-up.
“It was tough without Simon Laliberté (LNAH’s second best scorer this year), Guillaume Rodrigue and Maxime Ouimet. But I know the last thing our fans want to hear is excuses. So I won’t go too far on this…”
But Lygitsagos had to admit that some players wasted their opportunity to stand up while key players were not available.
“Some did stand up and some did not. It’s now up to me to make the right decisions,” said Lygitsagos.
Still, the coach believes in his team.
“We’re all under the shock after what happened, but I know our future is bright. We have seven players under contract for next year and each and every one of the other guys in the dressing room wants to come back. Plus, we will have a couple of nice surprises for our fans.”
And while Trois-Rivières fans will wait for “nice surprises”, Sherbrooke will play Rivière-du-Loup and Saguenay will play Saint-Georges in best of seven semi-finals starting Friday.
Rivière-du-Loup played some good hockey in the first round but should not give regular season champion Sherbrooke too much of a hard time.
But be sure Saguenay and Saint-Georges, who were only separated by three points at the standing in favor of the Marquis, will give fans their money worth.
Contact Michel.Tasse@prohockeynews.com
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