Titans end Panthers' season | BP Sports Niagara

Minutes following a season-ending 5-2 loss to the Brantford Titans, Pelham Panthers head coach/assistant general manager Zac Rinaldo slumped on a couch in his office and tried to convey how devastating missing out on the playoffs was for the organization.

“It’s heartbreaking, realistically. There’s no other word to describe it. It’s heartbreaking.”

The Panthers needed at least a point to secure the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, but came up just short and finished with a 20-25-5 mark, a solid improvement from last season.

“Very proud,” Rinaldo said. “We’ve made huge strides in improvement as an organization from top to bottom, bottom to top. There’s always always room for improvement no matter what, but we are very happy with where we are as an organization internally with culture and for recruiting and for identity as a team but obviously it’s a sour taste in our mouth.”

Rinaldo said the Panthers took the loss hard.

“I think they’re dealing with a lot of shock right now,” he said. “I think it seems surreal to them. Talking to them and 90 per cent of the guys are crying because I think they’re actually going through shock. I don’t think they understood what they had and I don’t think they will ever understand what they have until it’s gone. So now I think that they’re realizing how good they have it and how much they love each other and now unfortunately that has to come to a pause.

“I hope it makes them stronger, returning guys and guys who don’t return, I hope this loss serves a purpose to everybody.”

The Panthers have most of their team eligible to return for next season, graduating only Ty Boone, Zak Bell and Josh Czalij.

Rinaldo felt for his gradating players.

“The first thing I said was I apologize to our 20-year-olds,” he said. “I think that was warranted. I wanted to continue their hockey careers. I wanted to continue their season. I wanted to continue their hockey, because that’s life for them. I made it life for them, and they wanted that to be life for them. So I said sorry first and foremost to them and I hope that wherever they go they know they can call on us and we can always be there for support.”

Rinaldo admits the club’s slow start had him questioning his own coaching abilities.

“I was looking internally. So I think me as a coach pushing through and sticking to my philosophy and my way of coaching and then it still leaking into the team and us getting over that losing hump, I think from where we started to where we finished that’s what I’m most proud of. It wasn’t the best start but we finished strong. Unfortunately it was just too late.”

Rinaldo said the Panthers will take a couple of days to decompress and then get back at it.

“We just have to keep moving forward,” he said. “There’s no time to dwell on the past. I think you take 24, 48 hours to dwell on it, but then you got to move forward and focus on what’s next, and training camp is what’s next so we’re all hands on deck now.”

STATS PACK

Titans 5 Panthers 2

Brantford’s Quinton Kim-Lemay

Pelham Panthers: Dylan Leslie (18), Zachary Bell (14).

Brantford Titans: Ethan Szabo (32); Kaleb Frank (15); Lucas Muhn (7); Quinton Kim-Lemay (7); Matteo Crichigno (2).

Game stats: Shots on goal: By Brantford on Logan Snyder (33); by Pelham on Carter Vincente (20); Power plays: Brantford 1/2, Pelham 0/2; Penalty minutes: Brantford 10, Pelham 6.

Attendance: 415.

Up next: Quarter-final best-of-seven playoff action. St. Catharines vs. Hamilton; Ayr vs. Brantford; Fort Erie vs. Cambridge; Caledonia vs. Port Colborne. Dates to be announced.

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