By: Daniel Vazzoler
The Carleton Place Canadians used three unanswered goals in the third period on Friday to pick up a 3-1 road win over the Smiths Falls Bears.
Kyle Dowdall opened the scoring with 0:10 remaining in the second period, getting his goal shortly after an offensive zone face-off. Dowdall found the loose puck in front of Jeremie Forget and he slipped it past the Canadians goalie.
After falling behind late in the second period, Tim Theocharidis scored for Carleton Place to level the score early in the third. A Bears turnover in the Canadians zone quickly turned into a 2-on-1 rush from Theocharidis and Sam Knoblauch. The give-and-go play between the Canadians ended in Theocharidis snapping a wrist shot past Bradley Dobson’s glove-hand.
Carleton Place had 17 shots in the first two periods but couldn’t find a way to beat Dobson in the opening 40 minutes. The Theocharidis goal appeared to give the Canadians some momentum offensively.
Travis Broughman scored 3:29 after the game was tied to give Carleton Place the lead. Theocharidis’s shot from the blue-line got tipped on the way to the net by Sam Allison. That tip, and the traffic in front of the net, made it difficult for Dobson to track the rebound and Broughman – similar to Dowdall’s goal – got to the puck first and backhanded the puck into the net.
Forget and the Canadians stifled any come-back efforts from the Bears before Keenan Reynolds sealed the victory with an empty net goal in the final minute of the game.
Carleton Place continues its road stretch of games on Sunday when it travels to Navan for an afternoon game against the Grads before a home-and-home set against the Rockland Nationals starting on the road on Friday.
