Canadians get convincing victory over Raiders

By: Daniel Vazzoler

It was just the second game of the season for the Carleton Place Canadians, but the offence looked like it was in mid-season form on Sunday in a 6-1 win against the Nepean Raiders.

Carleton Place bombarded the Nepean net with 47 shots in the game, and the offensive pressure paid off with a trio of Canadians scoring two goals each – Brett Thorne, Peyton Francis and newcomer Henry Enebak.

Not only was it the second game of the season for Carleton Place, but it was also the second game where coach Jason Clarke has had the full compliment of players to choose from. The Canadians beat the Ottawa Jr. Senators, the defending Bogart Cup champions, the day before but Clarke said the offence looked more polished in the offensive zone on Sunday – adding get back on the ice has helped.

“We’ve only had one practice, guys are a little bit nervous but I think they’ve settled in a little bit now,” Clarke added. “It’ll be interesting to see how we play [Monday].”

It didn’t take long for the Carleton Place offence to get on the board against Nepean with Enebak scoring 9:10 into the first period. Following an offensive zone face-off, Zach and Ben Tupker hunted down a loose puck in the corner while Enebak found the open space in the slot. Zach hit Enebak with a pass and he one-timed the shot past Logan Bateman for the early lead.

“It’s a big confidence booster,” he said of scoring early in his first CCHL season. “Playing with the Tupker twins is a lot of fun, they know how to find guys in the slot and they work really well down low. They just make my job easy, I guess.”

The Tupkers proved more than once they can find the open man for scoring opportunities as Ben and Zach finished the game with three assists each – with the pair tallying both assists on three goals.

The power play helped the Canadians get a big lead early on, getting three goals on the man advantage in the first half of the game.

“Not bad for not working on the power play yet this season,” Clarke chuckled.

With Thorne’s two power play goals on Sunday, he’s already one off his total power play goals from last season.

“Goals are always nice, and I’ve got to give credit to my line-mates for setting me up for those two goals out there, but I don’t really focus on that,” he said. “We focus more on standard of play and hopefully we keep the power play going.”

The Canadians didn’t have a set power play unit on Sunday, instead opting to use all four lines. Clarke said the reasoning for that is he feels they all have skills that compliment each other on the man advantage.

“Early in the year, I think if everyone gets looks on the power play it’s easy to see who clicks there and all players get confidence and know that they’re in a situation where they can go out and be successful,” added Thorne.

Connor Murphy carried a shut-out into the third period but Nepean took advantage of a Carleton Place line change and created an odd-man rush. Murphy stopped Geoff Dempster’s original shot but William Venne got the rebound and scored to end the shut-out bid.

Murphy ended the game stopping 23 of 24 shots he faced.

The Canadians wrap up their time at the Showcase Weekend on Labour Day Monday when they take on the Cornwall Colts for the last of three games in three days.

“The way we sleep, the way we eat is going to be big for us,” Thorne said following the game. “Three games in three days is pretty tiring on the body so I just think we need to go home, get some rest and come ready to play because Cornwall is going to be hungry.”