By: Daniel Vazzoler
The Carleton Place Canadians controlled the third period on Tuesday against the Pembroke Lumber Kings, scoring four unanswered goals on route to a 6-3 win on home ice.
Goals from Matteo Disipio and Derek Hamilton early in the final frame gave the Canadians the lead after they trailed 3-2 going into the period before Dylan Pollock and Will Soloway put the game out of reach with some insurance goals near the middle of the period.
“Our top line has been one of the best top lines in the league, if not the best line in the league,” Canadians head coach Brent Sullivan said of the Gino Colangelo-Hamilton-Disipio trio. “For them to capitalize immediately (in the third period) and then score off a face-off play to make it 4-3, it put wind in our sails.”
While the Canadians showcased some of their best hockey in that third period, they had chances to put the game out of reach much earlier.
Carleton Place had the first 14 shots of the game, outshot Pembroke 16-6 in the first period and only had a 1-0 lead to show for their efforts – Disipio’s 25th of the season. Ben Forget kept his team tied for almost the entire period, until Disipio beat the Lumber Kings netminder to the near post and banked the puck off him and into the net with just 0:51 remaining in the frame.
The strong start was nearly undone in the second period where Pembroke struck for three unanswered- goals and forced Sullivan into using his time-out after his team went down 3-1 midway through the period.
“The way we came out in the first where we were pretty much all over them, the guys thought it was going to be a cake-walk,” he explained. “Then, bang-bang-bang, we’re down 3-1 and I have to call a time-out halfway through the game which I never like to. I challenged our leaders to take control of the room a little bit too and recognize these kinds of nights have to stop happening.”
This wasn’t the first time the Canadians have played down to their opponents – something Sullivan said he felt the team did on Thursday against the Cornwall Colts – but the Canadians responded to the challenge levied by their coach and came away with the victory.
After a sub-par start to the second period, Carleton Place turned things around and got the momentum going back in their favour. The Canadians had 13 of the next 16 shots to end the period following the time-out and kept the pressure on Pembroke throughout the final half of the period.
Most importantly, Noah Kinlock-Varga scored to make it 3-2 late in the period and showing an opening past Forget – something the Canadians struggled to do as Forget stopped 30 of 32 shots he faced in the first 40 minutes.
“The infamous second intermission here at the CP Arena, that was a long time for them to sit and wonder if we’re about to get rolling,” Sullivan expressed, making note of the longer intermission as the second pad needed to be flooded before coming back out for the third period.
The seed of doubt that may have been planted in Pembroke’s mind fully bloomed in the third period.
It took the Canadians all of 3:52 to go from down by a goal to up by one. With the momentum fully on its side, Carleton Place turned Joe Chambers into a spectator almost as he faced three shots in the period, watched his team-mates pepper Forget with 18 shots and celebrated the four goals.
Soloway’s goal to cap off the scoring put the Canadians at ease for two reasons. The first being the three-goal lead it gave Carleton Place with less than nine minutes to go. The second, the goal came from the Canadians second power-play unit – a group that has struggled to find the net of late.
The pressure they were feeling was evident early on with the pucks bouncing away from them and the troubles the power play had getting set up in the zone when they were on the ice. The Canadians have been lethal on the man advantage this season, but most of why they sit second in the league on the power play is because of the first unit.
“We made an adjustment with throwing (Evan) Jamieson on the back-end there just to give a different look,” Sullivan explained. “A lot of pucks running through Cato which is pretty nice, that kid has great touch on the power play, and then Will Soloway as the net-front guy with a nice tip. Nice for them to get that little cookie there.”
The busy stretch for the Canadians continues on Wednesday night as they travel to face the Nepean Raiders. Then it’s back home for a pair of games, first against the Navan Grads on Friday then against the Rockland Nationals on Sunday.
Hamilton commits to Queen’s
The other bit of news coming out from the Canadians on Sunday was the commitment from Derek Hamilton to play at Queen’s University starting in the 2023-24 season.
Hamilton, a Kingston-native has 51 points (16 goals, 35 assists) to lead the team in scoring as a 20-year-old and sits fourth in league-scoring heading into action on Wednesday.
“Him being a Kingston-area kid, he always touched on how unique and cool it would be to play at Queen’s,” Sullivan said. “I coached in USports for five years, I have a lot of time for that league, Queen’s was one of our biggest rivals when I was at uOttawa and I know the program that (Brett Gibson) runs there.
“They don’t take a lot of Junior A kids, they take a lot of CHL talent (but) they were hard on recruiting Hammy from Day One,” he continued. “He’s had a year that not many can imagine, with that 23-game point streak and just the minutes that he eats.”
For Hamilton, the decision was easy when the opportunity was presented to him, Sullivan said.
