Novice B Royals save the best for last

Sometimes a day can’t end quickly enough. Others you wish would go on forever. Sunday, April 5th was definitely one of the latter for the Novice B Pierrefonds Royals and their fans. As a matter of fact, they probably wish the season would never end. After wrapping up the championship at the 31st Annual Dollard des Ormeaux Novice Tournament at noon, they capped off the year by capturing the league title in the evening, beating the Ile-Bizard Faucons 2-1.

Their first task, the final in the Dollard Tournament, was a thriller in the truest sense of the word. While their opponents, the Ile-Perrot Riverains 3, appeared to snatch victory away from them by tying the score with just four seconds remaining, the Royals again demonstrated their penchant for thriving when the stakes are at their highest, scoring in OT for a 2-1 win.

Despite all their accolades, their opponents in the evening’s league final had actually finished a point ahead of the Royals in the regular season, so victory was anything but assured. Yet, even when the Faucons pulled to within a goal late in the game, there was still the sense that this Pierrefonds team was destined to win it all. Sure enough, the game would end with the Royals on top… again!

The successful day was a fitting end to the year, one that saw them compile a 38-3-1 record overall and win the St. Laurent and Pierrefonds tournaments as well as Dollard and the league championship on Sunday. They also made a lengthy run in the regionals as the Deux Rives representative, but were eliminated in the semi-finals.

“What’s funny is that we had so many games that there was no time for practices so most of my coaching was verbal, just trying to explain the basics like using the boards, changing on the fly, backchecking, forechecking and supporting each other,” head coach Corey Posluns reflected. “For seven and eight-year olds to be able to pick that up and put it into practice was very impressive.”

Members of the Royals include Jake MacGregor, Charles Martin, Ethan Posluns, Massimo Rosati, Christian Edwards, Mason Larivière, Jacob Soles, Dylan Stanley, Maxence Lavigne, Alexander Bianchini, Justin Chioda, Tyler Gingras, Jonathan Tremblay, David Borrelli and Anthony Khoury.

They’ll wrap up the year with a family vs. kids game and gather together to take a photograph with their championship banners, a task that will surely require a wide zoom lens in order to capture them all.

“I’m so proud of everyone,” coach Posluns added. “Today was a phenomenal day.”