MONTREAL- The Lakeshore Panthers are the team to beat in the Peewee AA hockey league, especially since no other team has managed to do that yet this season.
The Panthers are going into the playoffs with a clean record, which stuns their assistant coach.
"It's imposssible, it's impossible to play a full season without losing a game," said Pierre Langlois, even though that's exactly what has happened.
At a recent practice head coach Louis Isabella and Langlois had the players play keepaway, which is a great way for the players to show off their skills.
"They always have competition between themselves too. One always wants to be better than the other so I think that's what drives them to go harder too," said Isabella.
The coaches are doing what they can to keep the players confident, and keep their skills in tip-top shape.
"It gives us a lot of confidence, sometimes too much but we deal with it and we always come out with a win," said Michael Fiorini, the Panthers' captain.
Lakeshore will play all of their playoff games at the Civic Centre in Dollard over the next week, and if they win, which they are expected to do, then it's off to provincials next month in Laval.
The Panthers finished 2nd in the province last year, they're standing 5th right now and yet they only had three players return from last year's squad.
Lakeshore's strength is keeping the puck out of their own net; they have the top defensive team in the province.
They also excel at maintaining a level head.
"They take it very calmly," said Isabella. "I don't find that they get too nervous in games because they know that they have to keep competing."
So calmly that despite being shorthanded five players because of spring break they managed to remain undefeated by eking out ties in their final two games.
