By: Daniel Vazzoler
Sunday afternoon started with a celebration at the Carleton Place Arena and the Carleton Place Canadians kept the good times rolling with a 6-4 victory against the Rockland Nationals.
The Canadians announced pre-game the proceeds from the 50/50 this season would be going to the CPDMH Foundation to help with the new expansion of the local hospital’s new emergency ward. Members of the foundation in attendance – and Canadians fans – were treated to a show from the line of Gino Colangelo, Derek Hamilton and Matteo Disipio once the game got started.
The trio combined for nine points in the win with Disipio scoring a pair of goals and Colangelo adding another in the win.
“I just think we were building on the games before this and we were due for a big night,” Disipio said. “We just always know where we are and they’re two great linemates. We play with speed, skill and smarts, it was just a long time coming for us to have a good night.”
Head coach Brent Sullivan said the Colangelo-Hamilton-Disipio line is one that dictates how the rest of his team plays. When that line is producing the way they did on Sunday, other lines feed off the momentum generated.
“I think it was huge for them, in their own confidence, to get off on the right foot early,” he added.
Colangelo started the offensive production from his line, tallying a goal just 3:53 into the game. The Canadians unit attacked with the speed Disipio spoke about, with Hamilton driving back the Rockland defence. His cross-ice pass found Disipio who then spotted Colangelo driving the net and behind the defence. Colangelo made no mistake, quickly deflecting Disipio’s pass into the open net behind Hayden Gould.
Disipio continued the strong performance with a pair of goals in the middle period. His first goal of the game was hard work rewarded by a fortuitous bounce. He had a pair of chances stopped by Gould before collecting his own rebound again and throwing the puck on net from behind the goal-line, banking it off the Nationals goaltender and just over the line.
Disipio’s second goal is a goal-scorer’s goal. The puck seems to find the dangerous players when they’re having a good game, and Sunday was no exception. Colangelo tried a drop pass to Hamilton in the attacking zone that – initially – got broken up by the Nationals defence. Instead of it being a good defensive play for them, it ended up being a perfectly placed puck for Disipio to skate onto and blast past Gould on the short-side.
“Our speed creates open spots for us,” Disipio said. “We always know where we are on the ice and when we’re moving our feet we draw defenders in to open up everybody else. That’s a key thing to have on your line.”
The play of the top line trickled down through the rest of the Canadians’ line-up on Sunday, but the biggest impact came from the line of Loic Prudhomme, Will Soloway and Charles-Antoine Gagne – who provided the other three goals for Carleton Place.
Soloway cashed in with a pair of goals that were nearly identical. He opened the scoring 2:37 into the game, one-timing Gagne’s pass into the slot over Gould’s glove-hand. Soloway scored the game-winning goal with another one-timed blast from the slot that beat Gould’s trapper again.
“I just try and do the little things right. Some games those chances go in, sometimes they don’t. I just happened to have two really good line-mates that set me up and you’ve got to finish them,” he said. “[They’re] two of my best friends on the team and that’s just what it’s been, the chemistry off the ice translates on the ice.”
“We were talking about [their success] as a staff between the second and third periods and they just play,” Sullivan explained. “They work, they’re on top of pucks, they win their one-on-one battles, they compete, they play for each other, it’s a lot of cliché stuff but they’re three really good-character kids. It’s nice for them to get rewarded offensively but they know their priority is just being hard to play against every single shift.”
The Canadians held a two-goal lead on four different occasions, with the Nationals responding to Carleton Place goals after the Canadians held a 2-0 lead in the first period. With Carleton Place up 5-3 late in the third period, Prudhomme made it a 6-3 advantage to help preserve the victory.
Carleton Place’s offence has been strong lately, putting up 15 goals over its last three games but Sullivan says the team needs to clean up the defensive side of the game after having allowed six goals to Cornwall and Hawkesbury each before the four allowed on Sunday.
The Canadians will have plenty of time to address that before their next game, the first half of a home-and-home with the Renfrew Wolves on Saturday night in Renfrew. The back-half will be the next day with an afternoon meeting taking place at the Carleton Place Arena.
