By: Daniel Vazzoler
Road trips have been fun so far for the Carleton Place Canadians, and that trend continued on Friday night with a 5-3 win against the Brockville Braves.
After a disappointing performance on Tuesday that resulted in Canadians head coach Brent Sullivan – somewhat – calling out his top players, the stars shined bright in getting the win. CCHL-rookie Will Soloway, who is expected to be a big piece to the offence, picked up his first two goals of the season, while returning vets in Gino Colangelo, Evan Jamieson and Brandon Walker also chipped in offensively.
“I loved out intensity and attention to detail,” Sullivan said following the win. “There were lots of adjustments made throughout the game and our guys were on the ball. We still need to figure out our power play, but I’m happy with our play at 5-on-5, our penalty kill and how we defended against the extra attacker.”
Friday night’s game went back and forth with the lead switching hands or being erased on multiple occasions. The Canadians had the lead twice in the first period but couldn’t hold onto it as the Braves scored to answer each Carleton Place goal.
Soloway opened the scoring with a power play goal 7:23 into the first period, deflecting Caton Ryan’s shot past Sami Molu – the lone goal scored with the man advantage on four tries for the Canadians.
Lucas Culhane responded just past the middle of the opening frame but it took Carleton Place just 0:37 to regain the lead thanks to Jamieson’s first goal of the season. The forward-turned-defenceman showed off his skills from when he played up front, leading the rush before driving to the net and finishing off the cross-ice pass.
Culhane tied the game once more before the end of the first period and then Brockville took their first – and only – lead of the game just 3:47 into the second period.
Rather than getting deflated emotionally as it seemed they did on Tuesday, Carleton Place fought back and scored a pair of goals before the end of the second period to take the lead heading into the third period.
Colangelo levelled the score with a quick wrist shot that beat Molu on the glove side, giving the momentum back to the Canadians. Walker kept the momentum in his team’s favour, tallying what ended up as the game-winning goal, by beating Molu with a one-timer that appeared to fool the Braves goaltender.
“This game shows the character of the group. Three out of four wins, all in tough rinks, this is a group with a no quit attitude,” Sullivan said. “I liked our ability to shake things off with a next shift mentality. It was also nice to see key D-men in Walker and Jamieson get on the board by doing what we are encouraging our D to do and get up in the play more.”
Next up for the Canadians is a return home to face the Kemptville 73’s, feeling good about their game heading back to the Carleton Place Arena.
“There are lots of positives (to take from this game),” Sullivan said. “We’re excited for Sunday at home and getting back to making CP a very hard rink to come in and take two points from.”
