By: Daniel Vazzoler
The shoot-out hasn’t been friendly for the Carleton Place Canadians in the 2017-18 season, but Sunday Carleton Place picked up a shoot-out win as it beat the Rockland Nationals 3-2.
The three previous shoot-out losses were on the minds of players and coaching staff, they said, and made adjustments on the fly in Sunday’s game.
“We went with totally different guys the whole way,” Canadians head coach Jason Clarke said chuckling. “We went with our untraditional shoot-out guys and it paid off, which was good.”
Clarke chose to have the Nationals shoot first, and the decision paid off with the help of Jeremie Forget who continued his strong play recently. Forget stopped all three attempts he faced and it was Ben Tupker who scored the winning goal. Tupker came in on his backhand side and chipped the puck past Sean Storr from in tight on the Rockland goalie.
“It’s always a bit nervous getting out there in the shoot-out, but I did what I could and it ended up going in,” he said about the game-winning goal. “A bunch of us get out early for practice and shoot on the goalies in the shoot-out. It’s nice to give the goalies some practice and the guys have some fun with it and try out some moves.”
Sunday’s game almost didn’t need the shoot-out, but a late power play goal from Trevor Coykendall tied the game with 2:17 remaining in the third period.
“It was a great job by (Shawn) Kennedy on hitting the late guy and then by the defenceman on hitting Coykendall at the back door. It was a good play, you’ve got to give your hats off to Rockland, they didn’t quit all night long, it was a good play. You just have to rally the troops and get back at it,” Clarke said.
After falling behind in the first period, Forget allowed the Canadians to get back in the game by shutting the door on the Nationals until the Coykendall goal.
“He just stands every night for us, so props to him for keeping us in that on for the majority of the game,” Canadians captain Geoff Kitt said about Forget. “When he’s in net, you just know he’s going to make the first save. You just have to make sure you have your guy and box him out so there’s no rebound, so obviously he gives us a lot of confidence.”
Connor Beatty put Rockland in front late in the first period and, midway through the second period, James Lister made an impact in his first career CCHL game by getting his first career CCHL goal.
“I just saw that there were two guys ahead of me, Reece (Bolton) and a guy on their team. I just skated as fast as I could. I didn’t even look for my shot, I just took it,” he said.
“Bolton made that play, he did a great job of protecting the puck. It was a late two-on-one and Bolton did a great job of keeping the puck on his forehand, pivot and made a very nice pass to Lister and Lister buried it hard,” Clarke added. “You get contributions from your call-ups and it just goes to show you that our club system is working, right from midget to Tier 2 to Jr. A.
“I was really happy for James Lister, he’s a big body, he’s a really good kid, works really hard and he’s going to be a real good player,” Clarke continued.
Carleton Place has five games remaining on its schedule before the league enters the Christmas break. The Canadians have four straight road games, starting on Thursday against the Kanata Lasers, before a home game against the Kemptville 73’s sends the Canadians into the break.
