By: Daniel Vazzoler
Carleton Place Canadians fans have had the opportunity to see lots of come-from-behind games at the Carleton Place Arena, with the home team being the ones coming back to get the win.
On Friday, the Canadians were on the other side of the come-back effort as the Navan Grads erased a two-goal deficit in the final two minutes of the game to get a 5-4 win in over-time.
“It was kind of an up-and-down game for us,” Canadians coach Jason Clarke said. “We competed when we wanted to compete and we got out-worked, that’s the reason why we lost. We didn’t have a lot of extra effort.”
Carleton Place fell behind 2-0 in the first period before Ben Tupker and Cole Beckstead scored for the Canadians in the final 2:35 of the opening frame. After falling victim to what could be considered poor puck-luck for the first two goals against, the Canadians had the bounces go their way for the two goals. Tupker had the open net to shoot at after Seth Carter gave up the rebound for the scoring chance and Beckstead deflected Brett Thorne’s shot into the net with just tenths of a second remaining.
After neither team scored in the second period, the script flipped in the third period as it was Carleton Place who jumped ahead.
David Gagnon benefitted from Reece Bolton’s effort on the fore-check as Bolton raced in to force a turnover immediately leading to the pass for Gagnon to one-time past Carter to get the lead. Bolton rewarded Jackson Sterrett’s effort on the fore-check 2:29 later to double the Canadians lead with 7:01 left in regulation.
Late in the third period, Grads coach Marty Abrams called a time-out to set up his team for a push to tie the game in the final minutes. For Clarke, he said he used the break in the game to review defensive responsibilities which he added were not followed and allowed Navan to tie the game.
“It was missed assignments. It was things we talked about during the time-out and guys not paying attention and bearing down. One guy missed his assignment up at the point (on Navan’s third goal) which we specifically told him to make sure he’s there. Then we have a defenceman let his guy go off on the face-off draw on what is the most important face-off of the game (on the tying goal),” Clarke explained.
Wil Murray scored both of the Grads goals in the final 1:12, having Zack Hoffman’s shot from the blue-line deflect off his pants and past Connor Murphy. Murray tied the game by darting through the face-off, picking up the loose puck on his way and snapped a shot through Murphy’s legs to make it 4-4.
“We just didn’t play our systems like we drew them up,” Canadians alternate captain Henry Enebak said. “We lost a guy or two and had a couple of bad bounces and that was the game.”
The over-time period didn’t last long as a Carter save in the Navan zone led to Corson Searles being sent on a breakaway against Murphy. Searles went to the backhand and put his shot just under the cross-bar for the win to complete the come-back.
Murphy has had a strong season, but in the eyes of his coach, Clarke said Friday wasn’t one of Murphy’s typical performances on the year.
“Navan’s goaltender was way better than ours,” he said. “Their guy stopped pucks and our guy was very average. When you get average goaltending, that’s what happens.”
Next up for Carleton Place is a home game on Sunday against the Smiths Falls Bears for a matinee meeting at the Carleton Place Arena with a start time of 3 p.m.
“We’ve just got to come back and be ready to play ‘CPC-style’. We know we’re a talented team and we’re gelling. If we’re working hard together, we’re a tough team to beat,” Enebak said. “We just need to respond, come out with intensity and energy and be ready to go.”
