The Navan Grads are having the type of season most teams can only dream about. They are at the top of Central Canada Hockey League standings and are poised to make a deep run in the playoffs which they hope will end with their first ever CCHL championship.
During their 32 years at the Junior A level, the Grads have never made it to the finals, let alone win a title. The closest they came was in 2002-2003 when they lost in the semi-finals. It’s also the only other time they finished the regular season in first place.
They finished in second place last year, but were upset in the quarter-finals by the Brockville Braves in a hotly contested seven game series.
If the want to go deep in the playoffs this year, they need their top offensive players to continue to produce at the same rate they’ve been scoring goals during the regular season.
As of last Saturday, team captain Gabriel Crête and Devon Savignac were second and fourth among the league’s leading point- getters.
Créte had 24 goals and 48 assists in 50 games with five games left to play in the regular season and Savignac, who has committed to play at Concordia University Wisconson next year, had 33 goals and 31 assists in 49 games.
As a team, the Grads lead the league in goals for with no fewer than seven players having scored at least 15 times.
Defensively, the team has the second-best goals against average in the league, thanks mainly to the play of rookie goaltender Jaedan Nelson,who was leading the league in wins as of last Saturday and had the second best save percentage. He is also coming off a month in which he was named both rookie and player of the month.
Besides Savignac, two other players have also committed to play south of the border next year. Forward Cristobal Tola has committed top play Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Mathew Roy has committed to play at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.
The Grads will enter the playoffs next week as the number one seed and will likely play the Carleton Place Canadians in the first round.
To find out when the team’s first home playoff game is visit their website at www.navangrads.com, or follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/navangrads.
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TRIVIA NIGHT AT TAPROOM 260 hosted by Outside the Box Trivia from 8-11 p.m.. Bring your A-game, your dream team, and maybe a lucky charm or two. Starts at 8PM, let’s see who’s the real quiz whiz! Taproom 260 is located in the Orléans Town Centre on Centrum Blvd.
