By: Daniel Vazzoler
The Carleton Place Canadians had a successful start to its 2018-19 season on Saturday, beating the defending Bogart Cup champion Ottawa Jr. Senators 3-1.
New-comer Andrej Hromic helped lead the Canadians to victory with one goal and an assist in his CCHL debut. After Carleton Place fell behind, Hromic picked up an assist on the tying goal less than two minutes later and then proceeded to score the game-winning goal.
“It means the world to me (to have such an impact),” Hromic said. “At the end of the day I just want the best for the team. So, any way I can help, that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Following a scoreless first period, Darcy Walsh opened the scoring and gave Ottawa a 1-0 7:37 lead in the second period. Shortly after falling behind, Cade Townend hit Hromic with a cross-ice stretch pass from the Canadians zone to the Ottawa blue-line. Hromic went back across the ice to Jackson Sterrett and opened a hole on Francis Boisvert’s glove-side, and Sterrett made no mistake to tie the game.
Late in the middle period, Hromic took advantage of a costly Jr. Sens turnover.
He picked off the D-to-D pass in between the circles in Ottawa’s zone and snapped a quick wrist shot into the top corner, beating Boisvert’s glove.
“For his first Jr. A game, he made a lot of plays that looked real good,” Canadians coach Jason Clarke said, praising Hromic. “He’s going to be a really good player, he’s just got to continue to get better every day and I think we’ll see a lot of good things out of him.”
The Canadians trio of Hromic, Sterrett and Keenan Reynolds created a number of scoring chances and showed Carleton Place fans what could be coming this season from that line.
“I think it all starts with off-ice,” Hromic explained. “We had a lot of team bonding sessions and I think that it all starts with that. When you’re all strangers, it’s hard to connect but when you become friends off the ice right off the bat I think that helps a lot and translates on the ice.”
With seven of the Canadians being in Russia as part of the Sirius Junior Club World Cup bronze-medal winning representative of the CCHL, Reynolds added that provided the opportunity for the line to play together throughout the preseason.
“I was the only returning forward and had the chance to develop some nice chemistry with Hromic and Sterrett, two really good players,” Reynolds said. “Obviously the results speak for themselves, they had a goal a piece this game.”
Reynolds also pointed out how he kept his line-mates from adding an assist to each of their totals after missing an open net in the second period, slipping his backhanded shot just wide of the net.
When it came to crunch time, Clarke turned to the young line of Ryland Mosely, Cameron Patton and Reece Bolton to hold the lead late in the game. Bolton rewarded his coach’s faith in them by sealing the victory with an empty-net goal late in the third period.
“Mosley and Bolton have played for (our organization) for four years so they know the systems and they know everything,” Clarke said. “And, you know what, those guys were really good [Saturday] and I thought they were really good defensively. I’ve got a lot of trust in those guys and you just put those guys out.
“That line played for a full year together in Jr. B, they know our systems, they know each other so that was just the right choice to put them out,” added Clarke.
Carleton Place continues its Labour Day Showcase weekend on Sunday when they take on the Nepean Raiders before wrapping up the weekend on Labour Day Monday against the Cornwall Colts.
