By: Daniel Vazzoler
Sunday’s game between the Carleton Place Canadians and the Kanata Lasers didn’t go the way the Canadians would have wanted, picking up a 4-1 loss after out-shooting the Lasers 50-16 in the game.
After giving up two of the first three shots in the game and a goal to Trevor Poeze 1:42 into the first period, Carleton Place responded with 21 unanswered shots but couldn’t find a way to solve Gabriel Carriere until late in the third period – when the result was certain.
Canadians coach Jason Clarke said he liked the offensive chances his team created and the pressure they put on Kanata, but there were a number of points he said the team needed to be better in to get the win the stats – other than goals – would have indicated.
“We could a lot of good chances to the net, but if you don’t have any second and third chances against a hot goaltender it’s going to come back to haunt you,” he elaborated. “The difference in the game was their goaltender was really good, and ours wasn’t.”
There were a few shaky moments for Vincent Bujold-Roux in the Canadians net, but the team had a number of breakdowns that created the chances against.
“There were little breakdowns that added up all game,” Carleton Place captain Cade Townend said. “Miscommunication on back-checks, not picking up our man around the net just all piled up at the end of the game.”
The Canadians played the second period pretty much the same way as the first, down in the Kanata zone, but the shooting lanes in front of Carriere were wide open. Despite facing another 15 shots in the first period, the lack of traffic in front of him made it an easier game than the number of shots would suggest.
“I thought every guy came to play, we had a good effort, we got a lot of shots on net so we couldn’t ask for much more but to put the puck behind him,” alternate captain Ben Tupker said. “Some games are like that, so we have to build off that and be consistent with how we played [Sunday].”
The season has been up-and-down in terms with the Canadians performances this season and the last two weeks were a microcosm of the season thus far. It started with a 6-4 loss against the Nepean Raiders in the first meeting since Carleton Place’s 10-0 win over Nepean. The Canadians responded to that game with an 8-1 win against the Kemptville 73’s before a pair of over-time wins over the Pembroke Lumber Kings and Smiths Falls Bears ended the road stretch for Carleton Place.
Even with a strong record and a tie for first place in the CCHL, consistency has been a problem to start the season for Carleton Place.
“I think we’ve to do a better job of doing the little things right, being hard to play against on a consistent basis and we’ve got to keep getting shots on net. Other games we haven’t done that well so we need to build off what we did right and be better with the things we didn’t do right. We can always be better,” Tupker said.
“You never like to lose, but if you’re going to lose playing how hard we did then we can accept that and sometimes that happens,” added Clarke.
The Canadians now get set for a home-and-home week-end against the Brockville Braves, who maintained their number-3 rank in the national Jr. A list released on Monday, while the Canadians got bumped up to 11 this week. Carleton Place travels to Brockville on Friday before the rematch on Sunday afternoon at the Carleton Place Arena.
