By: Daniel Vazzoler
The Carleton Place Canadians were on the road Thursday night as they travelled to face the Cornwall Colts and returned home with a 3-2 win.
A pair of Canadians goals from Zach Tupker and Geoff Kitt in the third period helped get the win for Michael Leach, who made the start in goal for Carleton Place. Leach stopped 22 of 24 shots he faced in the game while Liam Lascelle made 32 saves on 34 shots – Kitt’s goal was an empty net goal that ended up being the game-winner.
Even though the Canadians hadn’t played since Sunday, fatigue was something they had to deal with as 12 players were part of the CCHL Team Red for the Eastern Canada Cup Challenge that lost in the finals of the three-day event that ran Monday to Wednesday in Trenton.
Tupker and Kitt were part of Team Red but didn’t allow that to slow down their offensive production in the return to league play.
Tim Theocharidis, also part of the Eastern Canada Cup Challenge, opened the scoring late in the first period. With Carleton Place and Cornwall playing 4-on-4, the Canadians rushed the puck up the ice and into the Colts zone. Adam Pilotte moved the puck across the blue-line to Theocharidis and his wrist shot from the top of the circle beat Lascelle.
Early in the second period, Konnor MacCormick tied the game with a power play goal. Cameron Hebert dropped the puck off for MacCormick at centre-ice, allowing him to attack the Canadians penalty killers. MacCormick’s shot eluded Leach as the puck deflected off the Canadians goalie and into the net.
The score remained tied at 1-1 heading into the third period, where Tupker gave Carleton Place the lead. Ben Tupker passed the puck into the slot and Travis Broughman tipped the puck to Zach. While falling to the ice, he moved the puck to his backhand and beat Lascelle with a beautiful goal.
Kitt gave Carleton Place some insurance with an empty net goal. That extra goal ended up being a much-needed goal as J.D. Pogue scored off a nice passing play from the Colts, finished with a lovely forehand-backhand deke on the edge of the crease to beat Leach with 0:26 left in the game.
Cornwall tried to push for the tying goal, but it was all for naught as the Colts weren’t able to generate the opportunity for the goal.
The Canadians are back in action over the week-end as they play the Kanata Lasers on Saturday night in Renfrew before returning to Carleton Place on Sunday to face the Rockland Nationals.
