By: Daniel Vazzoler
The Carleton Place Canadians beat the Ottawa Jr. Senators 2-1 in over-time on Sunday and the win means the Canadians capture their fifth straight regular season championship to extend the record-setting streak.
“Every year, when you start in August, you want to win the league but it’s too early to really think about that,” Canadians coach Jason Clarke said. “You’re just really proud of the accomplishments the players have achieved this year […] the group should be proud of our standard of play this year.”
Sunday’s game was a meeting of the two best teams in the CCHL and – while the score was close – the Canadians controlled the first two periods, out-shooting Ottawa 27-6 in the opening 40 minutes.
“I liked how we competed today without the puck, we took a lot of time and space away and took a lot of Ottawa’s good ice away. It was a very good effort as a unit of five guys on the ice and all 20 guys bought in. We attacked as a unit of five in the offensive zone, we attacked as a unit of five in the defensive zone and we attacked as a unit of five in the neutral zone,” Clarke explained.
Carleton Place received some help from Ottawa in the second period to try and take over the game when the Jr. Senators got into penalty trouble.
During a scrum in front of the Ottawa net following a whistle, Devon Daniels cross-checked Haydn Hopkins in the face and got a major penalty and a game misconduct for the infraction. While Carleton Place was on that five-minute power play, Adrien Bisson also took a cross-checking minor penalty to put the Canadians on a two-minute 5-on-3 advantage.
The power play couldn’t take advantage of those and the other two power play opportunities in the period where the Canadians out-shot the Jr. Senators 19-3 in the frame.
“I thought we got the looks we were looking for (on the power play),” Sam Knoblauch said. “(Connor) Hicks played outstanding, he’s a heck of a goalie and he was seeing a lot of the pucks. Maybe that’s one thing we could have worked on, getting a little more traffic and getting those second and third chances.”
Joe Alexander scored for Ottawa late in the second period to take a 1-0 lead to the third period. He beat Jeremie Forget high on the glove-side for the goal to reward Hicks’ efforts in being the difference-maker on Sunday.
“He’s an elite goalie, I mean, he’s unbelievable,” Clarke said, praising the Ottawa goalie. “He deserved the first-star [Sunday], he was fantastic. That’s the reason he’s one of the top two goalies in the league, I think him and Forget are pretty good.”
“Some guys were definitely gripping their sticks too tight,” Canadians assistant captain Cade Townend said about the effect Hicks had on the Canadians. “He’s a good goalie, you’ve got to give him credit, you’ve just to stick with it.”
Carleton Place did that as Knoblauch scored a power play goal on a rebound early in the third period to tie the game. The game went into over-time and Tim Theocharidis ended the game while showing his speed.
In the 3-on-3 period, Theocharidis got the puck in his own zone with only Owen Guy, an Ottawa forward, between him and Hicks. Guy did a good job of forcing Theocharidis wide, but a well-placed wrist shot beat Hicks just inside the post on the glove-side.
Sunday’s game was a meeting of the past two Bogart Cup finals – and likely a preview of the finals this year as well – and it looked like the fans knew that as 611 people showed what kind of home-ice advantage the Canadians can have at the Carleton Place Arena during the playoffs.
“Every time you make a good play, you hear the crowd so it’s always good to have that reassurance,” Townend said. “We get it from the bench and it’s just a bonus to get it from the crowd. We like playing here, we don’t lose at home and we proved it [Sunday].”
There are three games remaining on the Canadians schedule in the regular season, with the final homestand of the year this week-end. The Nepean Raiders visit the Carleton Place Arena Friday night and the Hawkesbury Hawks come to town on Sunday. Carleton Place wraps up its season with a trip to Navan to face the Navan Grads on Mar. 9.
