Grads pumped to meet former leading scorers

“Effort-wise, we were right there,” says Grads head coach/general manager Paul Flindall, whose club wound up losing a pair of one-goal contests – 2-1 to first-place Brockville and 3-2 in overtime against Ottawa. “Everyone was working hard and working together as a team.

“You kind of wonder after the trade deadline how things are going to shake out in the room, but the guys are really focusing together and pulling for each other. I couldn’t be prouder of the effort we got the past two games.”

Grads defenceman Michael Nooyen says the team feels more together after Mathieu Ouellette and Mitch Gallant were granted their requests for trades to teams with a better chance of winning a championship.

“Everyone here thinks we can win,” notes Nooyen, a 20-year-old overager from Navan. “We can’t wait to play Pembroke and Cornwall, because you know what? That’s all we need is a little motivation to get us going. They wanted to move out, so we’re gonna get ’em for sure. It’s marked on our schedule.”

Besides two-thirds of the Grads’ top line moving out, the Jan. 10 trade deadline brought in a pair of defencemen from Hawkesbury. In his second game for Cumberland, Jonatan Burroughs scored a goal, an assist and was named first star, while Flindall also saluted the efforts of fellow newly-acquired defenceman Sebastien Dubus.

For Dubus, a 19-year-old from Orléans who started the year with the Gloucester Rangers, the deal was the second time this season he’s been traded.

“(The Rangers trade) really hit me by surprise,” Dubus recounts, noting he had earned increased playing time and was being used on the powerplay. “Like everyone, you want to play, get on the ice and make an impact, and I wasn’t really getting that in Gloucester, so I saw it as an opportunity to turn things around.”

However, the problem with Hawkesbury for the University of Ottawa student was that a practice would take five hours out of his night with the travel, so he asked to be moved back to the city.

“That I got traded to a playoff contender is a big plus,” smiles Dubus, who is enjoying getting back to a very competitive environment. “Last year, it was my first year in the league that I made the playoffs, and once you get there once, you want to do it every year.”

Meanwhile, Dubus’ former club, Gloucester, has continued its winning ways following the Jan. 10 trade deadline, registering 6-2 and 4-3 victories over Kanata and Nepean to extend their winning streak to five games.

The Rangers host Pembroke for a 7:30 p.m. start on Friday, Jan. 22 at Earl Armstrong Arena, while Cumberland welcomes Kanata to Navan Memorial Centre on Sunday, Jan. 24 at 3 p.m.