By: Daniel Vazzoler
The Carleton Place Canadians had to battle more than just the Ottawa Jr Senators on Saturday as they picked up the 4-2 win in their second game of the CCHL Showcase Week-end.
It was a parade to the penalty box for Carleton Place as it faced 10 Ottawa power plays, killing off eight of them and getting a short-handed goal to help balance the goals against.
“I thought it was a really good effort,” Canadians coach Jason Clarke said. “We had to fight through some adversity, the officiating didn’t go our way at all so we had to kill a lot of penalties. It was good for us to fight through that adversity, come together and it was good to see.”
Clarke said he liked the execution of his team’s penalty kill, adding there was not much more the penalty killers could have done to prevent the two Ottawa power play goals.
Along with having to face the multiple short-handed situations, the penalty killing unit got Carleton Place on the scoreboard.
Ayo Adeniye scored the game-winning goal on a rare break-away for the defenceman. Adeniye forced the turnover at the Carleton Place blue-line and showed off his skating ability to get away from the defence. When it came to the moment of truth, he faked the forehand shot before going to the backhand and beating Joshua Ward.
“I just closed my eyes and shot it as hard as I could after the deke,” he said about his goal. “It was more of a reactionary thing for me. I never thought I’d get a break-away on the penalty kill as a defenceman but whenever it works, it works.”
Adeniye’s team-mates and coaches had similar thoughts running through their minds when they saw the typically physical defenceman busting down the ice for the scoring opportunity.
“I didn’t know if he was going to shoot, pass, put it in the corner or what he was going to do,” said Clarke. “I’ve seen him make that move on break-aways in practice so it was good to see him bury it.”
“I said ‘Oh no, big man’s going’ and he ended up making a nice move and putting it in the net, so you like to see it,” Canadians alternate captain Brett Thorne said of his fellow defenceman’s goal.
The Canadians defence helped the offence with its first goal as well as Ben Brunette scored his first career CCHL goal after Brent Broaders scored the first power play goal for Ottawa.
Ryland Mosley gave Carleton Place the lead early in the second period before Adeniye’s goal put Carleton Place ahead 3-1.
Ranvir Gill-Shane scored on a 5-on-3 power play that, according to Clarke, shouldn’t have happened. Clarke’s defiance to the situation earned him a bench minor penalty after the goal, but his team was there to back him up and killed off the remaining 5-on-3 after the bench minor.
Cameron Patton restored the two-goal advantage early in the third period and Devon Levi, as he’s already proven early in the season, was a brick wall in the third period to get the Canadians the win.
“Devon Levi was awesome,” his coach said. “He didn’t have a lot of work 5-on-5 but he’s got to be our best penalty killer and, short-handed, he was unbelievable.”
The Canadians now have the chance to end the showcase with a perfect 3-0 record as they close it out with a game against the Nepean Raiders Sunday afternoon.
