By: Daniel Vazzoler
The Carleton Place Canadians and Kemptville 73’s combined for five goals in the first period on Wednesday in the Canadians 5-1 win at the North Grenville Municipal Centre.
The Canadians had five different goal-scorers on Wednesday as Jeremie Forget picked up the victory, making 22 saves in the process. Geoff Kitt, Ben Tupker and Sam Knoblauch led the way offensively as each player picked up two points in the game.
Kitt got the scoring started early, getting the game’s first goal just 3:22 into the opening period. Aidan Girduckis bounced the puck into the attacking zone and sent it behind the net for Knoblauch. Kitt found some open ice in the slot and one-timed the Knoblauch pass by Cooper Lukenda for the lead.
Matthew Titus tied the game with a quick wrist shot after the face-off to the right of Forget that beat the Canadians goalie on the blocker-side.
The tie was short-lived as the Canadians struck for two goals 0:36 apart. Haydn Hopkins scored what ended up being the game winning goal with 9:22 left in the first period. Connor Hill stole the puck off the boards and circled into the high slot. His wrist shot was stopped, but Hopkins gathered the rebound and slipped it past Lukenda.
Zach Tupker quickly added some insurance for the Canadians as he finished off the pass from Ben and snapped his shot past Lukenda for a 3-1 lead.
Justin Cmunt capped off the scoring late in the first period. At the tail-end of a Canadians penalty, Cmunt came flying off the bench and into the attacking zone, skating onto a loose puck in the slot and wired a slap shot to beat Lukenda on the glove-side.
After the first period, Nick Bond replaced Lukenda. Bond ended the game stopping 24 of the 25 shots he faced in two periods of work, with the lone goal he allowed being scored by Ben Tupker in the third period.
Ben’s goal came on a Carleton Place power play as he cleaned up the rebound from a Cade Townend shot following a lovely seam-pass by Adam Pilotte to hit Townend by the Kemptville net.
The two teams play the second half of the home-and-home series on Friday at 7:45 p.m. at the Carleton Place Arena before they begin their holiday breaks.
