By: Daniel Vazzoler
Some may argue it doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you pick up the two points it was a good game for your team.
After Sunday’s 3-2 over-time win by the Carleton Place Canadians over the Smiths Falls Bears, it’s clear Canadians coach Jason Clarke is not one of those who believe in the idea any win is a good win.
“Our goalie was really good,” he said. “We played 30 seconds of really good hockey (in regulation) and then we played about 20 seconds of really good hockey in over-time and that was about it for us.”
Carleton Place had the lead after the first period thanks to Peyton Francis’s late goal, but turnovers and overall sloppy play kept the Canadians from taking over the game. That allowed the Bears to gain momentum and a second period Jacob Shankar goal tied the game before Grant Rincke put the Bears ahead early in the second period.
After the game, Clarke listed off what he said he felt his team was lacking in all but the dying moments of the game.
“I would say heart, determination, care, effort, you name it, it wasn’t very good. But our goaltender was very good and it was good to see our goaltender come back from a very average performance on Friday and be an absolute stud on Sunday afternoon to get us the points that we needed.”
Connor Murphy wasn’t alone in having an average game on Friday when the Canadians coughed up a 4-2 lead late against the Navan Grads before losing in over-time, a game where he allowed five goals on 37 shots. On Sunday, Murphy kept the Canadians within arms reach, stopping 22 of 24 shots against in the victory.
“There’s just been a lot going on in the past week, so I think my mind was all over the place and I just had to relax a little bit [Sunday] and focus up a little bit more than on Friday,” Murphy said.
It took until the final 30 seconds of the game for Carleton Place to reward the efforts of its goalie as Brett Thorne tied the game, walking into a loose puck in the slot and blasting a slap shot past Jake Smith to send the game to over-time, where Thorne also tallied the game-winning goal.
“Obviously I’m happy to get those two goals but it was a couple of good bounces. The one in the slot I just hit it home and then the other one in over-time was just kind of an odd-man rush,” Thorne said.
For nearly half of the Canadians, the past week has been full of hockey with nine players participate in the Eastern Canada Cup. While Clarke wouldn’t attribute the sloppy play to fatigue, he did say he is going to give his players a couple of days off the ice before returning to practice on Wednesday.
The Canadians are back to game action on Thursday when they travel to face the Kanata Lasers before heading out to battle the Hawkesbury Hawks on Friday.
