By: Daniel Vazzoler
Calling Sunday’s game between the Carleton Place Canadians and Rockland Nationals a physical game would be an understatement.
“First word that comes to my mind is bush league,” said Canadians coach Jason Clarke. “It’s 2018 and to see a hockey game like that, with how the game is played, to me is embarrassing. It’s good to see our guys fight through adversity and win. Just goes to show you that when you play the game the right way, do things the right way and treat the game the right way, you’re going to win.
“Other than our team, I thought it was a bush league performance,” he added.
Carleton Place beat Rockland 6-4 on Sunday to get the second win of the week-end over the Nationals after winning Friday’s game 4-0 in what was a much tamer match-up.
“We don’t have many back-to-back games with the same team in this league, but that’s how it usually is when you play the same team twice in a row,” assistant captain Sam Knoblauch said. “It’s going to get extra chippy for sure, but it’s a good test for when playoffs come around because that’s how it’s going to be in the playoffs.”
While some of the Canadians players chalked up the feistiness to playing in back-to-back games, Clarke wasn’t buying it.
“They have the reputation for playing like that, it’s not the first time. They have three or four players that have a lot of major (penalties), they lead the league in majors and penalties so this is nothing new,” he said.
Carleton Place came into Sunday having to manipulate the roster, going with 11 forwards and seven defencemen to start the game, and at points in the game the Canadians were down to just 13 skaters at their disposal.
The Canadians took a 2-0 lead in the first period thanks to goals from Peyton Francis and Travis Broughman before capitalizing on a Mathieu Blanchette major penalty for checking from behind. While on the power play, Sam Allison was left alone in front of Zach Roy and slipped a back-hand shot through Roy’s legs for a three-goal lead going into the second period.
After having a few players leave the game in the opening period, Carleton Place did a good job of staying disciplined in the period.
“When a couple of guys on your team get hurt from questionable hits and plays from the other team, guys are going to get a little upset,” Knoblauch said. “Just try and channel that into good energy and put the puck in the back of the net and make them pay that way. I don’t think we’re a team that’s going to run around and try to hit people and stuff (like that), we’re more of a team that’s going to make them pay by scoring goals.”
Emotions boiled over for both teams in the second period, with a combined 17 infractions between the two teams, and that allowed Rockland to get back in the game with goals from Jean-Sylvain Boyer and Alex Robert to cut the deficit to 3-2.
“The emotions were running too high in the second period and we got running around a little bit,” Clarke explained. “Guys were getting upset with how the game was going and some of the liberties that were taken on our players and we just had to settle down. Once we settled down and got back to our game, we showed we have a little bit of character and grit.”
The Nationals took a 4-3 lead with 8:30 left in the third period after goals from Connor Beatty and Boyer getting his second goal of the game.
Knoblauch tied the game with less than five minutes to play after a great effort by Zach Tupker to keep the puck in the attacking zone and finding some open ice for himself. Knoblauch cut to the net and tipped Tupker’s pass past Roy.
A little over a minute later, Allison scored his second goal for what proved to be the game-winning goal.
“I swung behind (Noah) Tooke who skated up the ice and he made a nice drop pass. I went around the first guy and ripped it five-hole,” he said describing the goal.
Ben Tupker capped off the game with an empty-net goal, forcing a turnover at the Rockland blue-line and found the open net for the goal.
“(This game) shows the type of kids we have in that room. I told them after the game, I’ve been in this league for 15 years, won a lot of regular season games, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this proud of our group after what they had to go through today.”
Carleton Place continues its home-stand Friday night when it hosts the Pembroke Lumber Kings before an afternoon meeting on Sunday against the Cornwall Colts.
