By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
The outgoing captain of the Yarmouth Mariners says the team battled through a lot of adversity this past season from changes in coaching, to changes in ownership.
And the team’s push for playoffs at the end of the season had fans hoping they had overcome their biggest adversity – spending too much time in sixth place in the Bent division.
But in the end, says Mariners captain Carl Hayes, the team’s effort, while strong, was too late in the game, despite wins against the division-leading Truro Bearcats and the league-leading Woodstock Slammers.
“That shows a lot about the character of the guys,” Hayes said a couple of days after Yarmouth was edged out of the post-season. “When we wanted to play, we could really play . . . unfortunately we just left it too little, too late.”
The team and fans went into the Mariners Centre on the night of the team’s last regulation season game with high hopes, especially after the team had battled their way into fifth place, and at one point was not far out of reach from fourth place.
But in the end the worst thing about that Feb. 27 game wasn’t just that the Mariners lost to Halifax 3-1. It’s that elsewhere in the province the Amherst Ramblers won.
The Mariners had needed a win or a tie in regulation. And if neither of these things happened they needed Amherst to lose.
At least that was the script fans were hoping for. But that’s not the ending they got.
With the Mariners loss and the Ramblers win, both teams ended the season with 42 points. But the Ramblers’ victory edged out the Mariners because it meant that at the end of the season the Ramblers had 20 wins to the Mariners’ 19. It was a tough way to end the season, Hayes says.
“Right from training camp everybody started with one goal in mind and when you don’t reach that goal, of course it feels a little empty hearted.”
Hayes led the Mariners in points during the season with 56. In 50 games he had 29 goals and 27 assists. But as captain and as the veteran on the team – he was the only 20 year old – he also led his team off the ice, including during the changes that went on.
Prior to the season, starting head coach Laurie Barron was replaced as head coach with Lindsay Horne. Then later in the fall rumours surfaced that the team was for sale. Around Christmas the team was sold, Horne was out as coach, and Barron was brought back on the bench.
“You try as a hockey player not to concentrate on that stuff, you want to focus on the ice,” Hayes says.
