By: Daniel Vazzoler
After close games earlier in the season, the Carleton Place Canadians and Brockville Braves had another tight affair on Friday that ended 4-3 in favour of Brockville.
For the second time that the two teams faced at the Brockville Memorial Centre, it took a shoot-out to determine the victor. It was Philippe Gilmour who scored with the only goal in the skills competition that lasted four rounds until the winning goal was scored.
The Braves jumped out to an early lead, with Tyson Kirkby putting Brockville ahead by putting the rebound past Michael Leach 3:16 into the first period.
Justin Cmunt answered back late in the opening frame with a power play goal with 3:33 left in the period. Travis Broughman tried to jam to puck past Justin Evenson at the side of the net and the rebound went to the other post, where Cmunt was waiting to bury the loose puck to tie the game.
Carleton Place carried the momentum into the second period with two goals less than two minutes apart to give the Canadians the lead.
Zach Tupker took the Ben Tupker pass from across the slot on his fore-hand and beat Evenson low on the stick-side for the lead 2:04 into the second period. Travis Broughman extended the lead for his third point of the game just 1:55 later. Adam Pilotte moved the puck to Jaden Luik in the corner of the Carleton Place zone. Broughman found a lane between the Braves defencemen and took the Luik bank pass in stride before slipping the puck through Evenson’s legs for a 3-1 lead.
Mike McArthur cut the Canadians lead in the second half of the middle period. He took the missed shot in the Braves zone that rimmed around to the right-wing side into the attacking zone and beat Leach high on the blocker side.
Zac McMahon completed the comeback midway through the third period with a goal on the man advantage. His slap shot from the blue-line got past Sam Knoblauch as he charged out to the Braves defenceman to try and get in the shooting lane. The puck then eluded Leach to even up the score at 3-3.
Over-time solved nothing and the first six shooters between the two teams couldn’t solve Evenson or Leach. After Zach Tupker was stopped on his chance, Gilmour ensured the comeback-effort wasn’t wasted as he beat Leach with the lone goal in the shoot-out – the second shoot-out win by the Braves over the Canadians on home-ice this season.
Carleton Place will look to bounce back from the loss on Sunday when the Smiths Falls Bears come to the Carleton Place Arena, but will have to do it without six of their regulars as Aidan Girduckis, Connor Hill, Tim Theocharids, Cade Townend, Ben Tupker and Zach Tupker will be gone at the Team Canada East Selection Camp for the World Jr. A Challenge.
