Jr Canadians Advance to Championship Series

The Carleton Place Jr. Canadians have advanced to the Championship Series after defeating Ottawa 2-1 in Game 7 of the CCHL2 semi-finals. Brayden Campeau scored with 14:50 left in the 3rd period to push the CP lead to 2-0 and his goal would stand as the game winner.

Once again, Carleton Place scored an early powerplay goal. Ryland Mosley sent a pass from behind the net out to the top of the slot and captain Eastan Eckert scored his 4th of the playoffs.

The Jr. Canadians powerplay went 1 for 3 in the game and is up to 28.95% scoring.

The game stayed 1-0 until Campeau scored in the 3rd. “I came off the bench and skated into the zone and saw Vala with the puck. He gave me a great pass in the slot, I got around the D and then I made my way around the goalie.”

Campeau’s patience drew Ottawa net-minder Ryan Whitehurst out of his crease, Campeau went past him and tucked the puck between the posts to score the game winner.

“It was a big game, we all knew what we needed to do,” said Campeau. “Having played a Game 7 against Renfrew helped us out. We just figured we’d come in, work as hard as we could and whatever the result we’d be happy leaving.”

Jacob Lavergne had an outstanding night in net for Carleton Place. He made 29 saves and the only Ottawa goal was controversial. With just under 6 minutes to go in regulation Justin Turner dropped a pass for Joshua Filoso who found Devin Saumur skating towards the net. The puck went off Saumur’s skate and past Lavergne and the referees ruled there was no kicking motion and allowed the goal to stand.

Lavergne is a 17 year old from Carleton Place and started games 6 and 7 for the Jr. Canadians. He stopped 44 of the 47 shots he faced to help close out the series.

“He stood on his head the last two games,” said Head Coach John Ollson. “We really needed to solidify the net and he did that, so that really helped us.”

Carleton Place trailed 2-0 and 3-2 in the series but were able to battle back, and did so through a tight schedule of 4 games in 5 days. “We’ve been working out every day all year, and no one has practiced more than us. I think we were in better shape and are legs were still there in the 3rd period,” said forward Aiden Parnell.

The Jr. Canadians will now play the Casselman Vikings in the Championship Series. Casselman have won the league Championship 4 years in a row. The Vikings won 2 out of the 3 regular season meetings over the Canadians.

“It is such a tough league, and you might not get a chance in the finals to often so we have to make the most of it,” said Ollson. “Casselman is a very good team so we have our work cut out for us.”

Casselman will have home ice advantage for the finals. They defeated the Perth Blue Wings 4 games to 3, coming back from being down 3-1 in the series. The Barkley Cup is scheduled to begin in Casselman on Thursday night. The complete schedule will be posted to the team website as soon as it is released.