By: Daniel Vazzoler
Anyone who left Sunday’s game between the Carleton Place Canadians and the Kemptville 73’s early missed an exciting ending that resulted in a 5-4 over-time win for the Canadians.
Carleton Place trailed Kemptville 4-1 with 4:06 remaining in regulation before Henry Enebak started the come-back with a long snap shot through the traffic in front of Nick Bond. With the goalie pulled, Brett Thorne brought the Canadians within a goal and, one minute later, Elliott McDermott leveled the score with a shot that pin-balled off the bodies between him and Bond to elude the Kemptville goalie and tie the game with 1:31 left in regulation.
“It was pretty incredible, I mean, I was just trying to get it on net as best as I could with my team-mates going hard to the net,” McDermott said. “It bounced off a couple of bodies and found its way into the back of the net. At the end of the day it was awesome to tie it up there.
“Not really at all, but I’ll definitely take it,” he added when asked if his first career CCHL goal was how he pictured scoring it.
Carleton Place continued the motivation into the extra frame and it was David Gagnon who ended the game, rifled a wrist shot coming down the right wing and rang it off the post and in for the game-winning goal.
Gagnon left the game in the first period after a collision at the blue-line before returning later in the game to get the winner.
“I was pretty shaken up after that hit, but slowly came back and got the shot off and it went in,” he said.
“A lot of guys probably would have folded the tent after taking three or four cross-checks but I thought he got better as the game went on,” Canadians coach Jason Clarke said of Gagnon’s performance on Sunday. “He was a little more involved, more physical, moving his feet and making plays. That last goal he scored is a goal-scorer’s goal and that’s what he is, he’s a shooter.
“Coming on the off-wing and going to the opposite side, post-and-in. I’ll be honest with you, it didn’t shock me that he scored that goal because I’ve seen him do it in practice on a regular basis. He’s a shooter, and if he’s shooting the puck then the odds are he’s going to score,” Clarke added.
The first 55 minutes of the game didn’t start the way the Canadians would have wanted. Ryan Pawlikowski scored a power play goal late in the first period to give Kemptville a 1-0 lead heading to the intermission.
Ayo Adeniye tied the game early in the second period, snapping the loose puck past Bond’s shoulder and firing it just under the cross-bar.
Kemptville responded with a pair of goals in the second period as Jacob Thousand tipped the Charlie Kiefer shot by Connor Murphy before Pawlikowski scored his second goal of the game, being left alone behind the defence and had three chances to chip the puck past Murphy.
Thousand looked like he sealed the victory in the third period, tallying his second goal of the game less than six minutes into the final regulation period before the Canadians came back later in the frame.
“We got out-played most of the game, I’d say 90 per cent of it, but we showed a lot of character in the last five minutes of that third period,” Clarke said. “It’s early in the year and you just need to take learning lessons (from this) and move forward.”
The Canadians have a full week without games, returning to action on Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend with a road game against the Nepean Raiders before a home game on the Thanksgiving Monday at 3 p.m. at the Carleton Place Arena against the Cornwall Colts.
