At the end of the 2019-20 regular season, the Athens Aeros sat winless at the bottom of the EOJHL Standings. A two-year pandemic later, the Aeros are tied 2-2 in a best-of-5 series, with a spot in the top 4 on the line.
Brought in to lead the team as Head Coach this summer was 28-year veteran coach Michael Seed. Seed had spent his entire coaching career with the Westport Rideaus. During his tenure in Westport, the Rideaus won 7 division titles and were crowned EOJHL Champions in 1998. “It was time for a change, I wanted a fresh start,” said Seed.
Eight of his players from Westport joined the Aeros roster for this season. “We had a lot of kids that wanted trades out of Westport. Our GM Steve Norton brought in some great players too. Rhett Palmer (’04, Canton, NY) had a great rookie season scoring 26 goals, we also made a big trade with CP to bring in local player Jayden Boyer (’02, Brockville).”
The Aeros finished the regular season 25-16-1, which put them 4th place in the Richardson Division. Their first round wildcard series was against Seed’s former team and the Aeros prevailed over Westport in a two-game sweep. The Aeros division semi-final matchup is against the top seeded Carleton Place Canadians. After four games the teams are tied and will play a decisive Game 5 on Friday night in CP.
A wrist shot from just inside the blueline off the stick of CP defenceman Brennan Boyce (’03, Kingston), beat Kaleb Griffin blocker side. The goal 8:22 into the 3rd period stood as the game winner in Game 4, in front of a crowd of 382 fans at the Centre 76.
“We need to keep our heads up,” said Seed. “We don’t need to change anything, just need to remember what got us here and what makes us successful.”
Game 5 is scheduled for 7:45pm in CP on Friday night. Two other Game 5’s will be played on Friday, with Arnprior travelling to Perth (7:30pm) and Casselman travelling to Embrun (8:00pm).
“I’m proud of this group and I have all the confidence we will be prepared for tomorrow night. CP are a bit of a younger team, we have some veteran leadership that we will lean on tomorrow to step up and be ready.”
