By: Daniel Vazzoler
A third period performance from the Carleton Place Canadians had them come back from a 3-0 deficit to the Kanata Lasers on Sunday before getting the 4-3 win in over-time.
The first two periods for the Canadians were less than stellar and they were playing from behind from early in the game. Carleton Place came out skating hard and playing the body on the first shift of the game, but Connor Sleeth scoring off a Carleton Place turnover just two minutes into the game looked to take the energy out of the team.
A little more than three minutes later, Kiryll Ulanov tipped the Cameron Beaudry shot past Michael Leach for a 2-0 lead and William Brochu capped off a perfect road period for Kanata with a goal on a 5-on-3 power play. The 3-0 lead lasted until the third period as Carleton Place wasn’t able to test Gabriel Carriere much in the opening two periods.
“Our first 40 minutes were not very good, but you have to give Kanata a lot of the credit,” Canadians coach Jason Clarke said. “They were very well prepared and I thought they did a lot of things really well. It was two almost-perfect road periods by Kanata and you can’t give them enough credit for what they did for 40 minutes.”
While Clarke gave credit to Kanata for being well prepared, Canadians captain Geoff Kitt claimed the opposite for him and his team-mates – saying they lacked energy to start the game.
“I just thought we weren’t on the same page with each other, a couple of errant passes and cheating in the ‘D’-zone a little bit. I thought the effort was there, but sometimes that will happen,” he added.
When the third period rolled around, Clarke said his team finally looked like the team he expected. He said the Canadians competed with Kanata and started winning one-on-one battles to create scoring opportunities.
Keenan Reynolds started the come-back early in the third period as he snapped his shot past Carriere to get the Canadians on the board 3:23 into the period.
“It’s obvious, being down 3-0, it’s looking pretty bleak but in the room in between periods our leadership core made sure to let us know that all it takes is one bounce to get back in the game. I was lucky enough to get a great pass from Justin Cmunt and Haydn Hopkins set him up. It was nice to see it go in but that goal was just indicative of our character as a group and our resolve to not die and roll over down 3-0,” Reynolds said.
Travis Broughman kept the hopes alive for the Canadians as he made it 3-2 with 6:44 remaining in the game before Kitt riled up the Carleton Place Arena as he tied the game in the final three minutes. Broughman found Kitt with a cross-crease pass and Kitt found the hole in Carriere for the game-tying goal.
Reynolds ensured the effort wasn’t wasted as he scored his second goal of the game – and his second goal for Carleton Place – tallying the game-winning goal with 0:48 remaining in over-time. Aidan Girduckis sprung Sam Knoblauch and Reynolds on a 2-on-1 rush leading to the goal.
“The puck was hopping everywhere and I tried to settle it down for like four seconds,” Reynolds said, explaining the play. “I threw the puck cross-crease, trying to get Knoblauch to one-time it but it wasn’t my best pass. He’s a great player and made a great play back across the crease and I was able to get the puck up under the bar.”
“Obviously you want the two points, and we were able to come out with those [Sunday],” Kitt said. “We would have liked to be on them all game, but it was nice to see the boys battle and get out with three points on the week-end (after Friday’s over-time loss).”
Despite getting the win, Clarke said his team needs to improve with 16 games still remaining in the regular season and plenty of time remaining before the playoffs begin.
“Right from the top of the lineup down to the bottom, we need to be better,” Clarke said. “We had a lot of passengers in the first 40 minutes and in this league, when things get tighter, anyone can win on any given night. We’ve really got to tighten up, that’s it.”
Carleton Place is on the road this upcoming week-end with games against the Smiths Falls Bears on Friday and the Navan Grads on Sunday before a home-and-home set against the Rockland Nationals on Jan. 26 at the CIH Arena and Jan. 28 at the Carleton Place Arena.
