Slumping Skyhawks trying to re-live glory days

Story by Steve Freyer


Year in year out ever since the North Bay Skyhawks moved from Sturgeon Falls into Memorial Gardens in the fall of 2002 the team has dominated the league. From being league champions three straight years, (2003-2005) to making it to the finals last year only to fall short of the title to Sudbury in six games, the Skyhawks have grown accustomed to being on the winning side and favourites going into the playoffs, but not this year. This year has been quite the struggle for the club to say the least. After an encouraging first two months of the season that saw the Skyhawks playing their best hockey, boasting a 10-3 record, things looked very bright for North Bay as they were challenging Sudbury for first place overall, then something went wrong. The Skyhawks skated to a 13-21-0-1 record following their hot 10-3 start and finished the season with a dismal 23-24-0-1 record.

“I don’t think we can pin it on anything, we tried different things over the course of the year, some things have worked in stretches and some things haven’t worked in stretches,” Turcotte said of his team’s struggles. “As far as I’m concerned that’s all out the window now and the only thing we’re looking forward to is game one of this series,” Turcotte added, referring to his team’s first round playoff series against Abitibi.

When asked if trading team veteran goalie Mike Lalonde, team captain Justin Piquette or star forward Jon Drake had anything to do with the Skyhawks slide in the standings, Turcotte was quick to defend the moves they made and pointed out that there’s no hard feelings on their(Skyhawks)side. “Trades had nothing to do with it. We did what we felt was best for the team at that time. It’s happened a lot in the past where guys get traded and it’s kind of a wake up call for them,” Turcotte said.

“Were Matt Bell and Jon Drake good players, absolutely, were they good players when they came here, absolutely, did they get complacent, possibly, and at that time we couldn’t accept complacency and we had to make decisions. I tell them every time I see them that they’re doing a great job. With those two guys I’m happy they’re doing well and I hope that they move on next year,” Turcotte explained of the team trading Drake and Bell

Talk of the possibility of an OHL team coming back to North Bay and moving back into Memorial Gardens, left some people wondering if that might have been a distraction to the Skyhawk players during the regular season, but Turcotte quickly shot that idea down.

“I don’t know how it can because we’re playing for this year and not next year,” he said.

The Skyhawks ended the regular season on a sour six game losing streak, which started ironically against their first round opponent Abitibi, dropping consecutive 4-2 decisions in a home and home series with the Eskimos. Their losing skid is the longest in franchise history and finishing 6th place out of seven teams in the league, doesn’t exactly fill fans with optimism about the free-falling SkyHawks as they find themselves in an unfamiliar role, the underdogs heading into the playoffs. Despite the team’s recent struggles, Turcotte feels his team matches up well against Abitibi and believes that the series will be a long, hard fought battle.

“I think it will be a great series, I can see it going seven games. We’ve played the season series, its 4-4 and there’s been some great games from a coaching standpoint, I’m sure Paul Gagne (Abitibi’s head coach) will say the same thing,” Turcotte expressed. “The teams match up well, obviously they have some high scoring forwards, our scoring is spread out a little more, so I think it’ll be a great series, a series that will be exciting for the fans,” Turcotte added.

In hopes of turning things around when it matters most, playoff time. The Skyhawks coach says his team needs to play on the same page and he’s been working with his players both on and off the ice to get them in top shape physically and mentally for the post season.

“We’ve had individual meetings, team meetings, we’ve talked about what guys need to do as individuals and as a team,” Turcotte said.

“We want everybody pulling in the same direction, that’s obviously a key in the playoffs. Playoffs are a game of momentum, we have to come out strong and once we have the momentum we got to kick it into high gear, we never want to relinquish that in the playoffs and we just have to keep battling until we get the fourth victory under our belt. Whether we’re up 3-0 or it’s 3-3 in the series we’ve got to just keep battling away,” Turcotte explained.

The sixth seeded Skyhawks begin their best-of-seven playoff series tonight at 7:30 p.m., when they visit Abitibi to take on the third seeded Eskimos at the Jus Jordan Arena.