By: Daniel Vazzoler
It wasn’t a pretty game for the Carleton Place Canadians, but it was enough for a 3-1 victory against the Pembroke Lumber Kings on Friday.
Ben Tupker opened the scoring in the first period, but there wasn’t much else either team could highlight in the first and second periods. That said, Canadians head coach Jason Clarke said he liked his team’s effort.
“In the first period, we looked ready to go and in the second period we were a little sleepy, but in the third period we went into ‘lock-down’ mode and spent a lot of time in the offensive zone and wore them down,” he said. “It wasn’t a pretty game, it was just a good, mental toughness effort and I’m really happy with the group.”
Travis Broughman and Justin Cmunt added goals in the third period to put Carleton Place up 3-0. The shut-out looked all but locked up for Jeremie Forget, but a Zach Cross goal put an end to those hopes with 0:50 left in the game.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world, especially since I think the shot was going wide” Forget said of losing the shut-out so late in the game. “I thought he was shooting low and I didn’t want to give up a rebound, so I tried to get it with my stick. I think I got a piece of it with my stick, but it ended up in the back of the net.”
The goal gave Pembroke the momentum in the game and the Lumber Kings turned that momentum into time in the Canadians zone for the final 30 seconds of the game – and into numerous chances to cut the deficit to one goal.
“Every time you give up a goal, you don’t want to let that goal cause another one,” Forget explained. “I thought, ‘OK, it sucks but I have to make sure that we don’t cause another one’ and we still needed the win. If they got another goal, it would have been a tough situation. It was just bearing down and refocusing.”
Friday’s game turned into a goalie duel between Forget and Jake Smith. Forget ended the game with 15 saves and Smith had 36 saves as the goalies were named first and second stars respectively.
“I thought both goalies were very, very good. It turned into a battle of the goaltenders,” Clarke said. “It was two really good goalies battling it out and it was good to see Forget almost get the shut-out.”
The Canadians top line of Cmunt, Geoff Kitt and Sam Knoblauch had chances to get on the board throughout the game but it took until 12:56 into the third period for the line to turn its opportunities into a goal. Cmunt one-timed the Knoblauch pass from the slot and the shot had a bit of a “knuckle-puck” effect as it looped over Smith’s shoulder and into the net.
“I thought we played well today, we kind of got away from our game in the second but we had good zone time,” Knoblauch said of his line’s play on Friday. “We worked their D-corps well down low, and Cmunt did a great job of getting in the ‘honey whole’ and being in the right spots for us to get a lot of chances.”
With four of the Carleton Place players away at the World Jr. A Challenge – Aidan Girduckis, Tim Theocharidis, Cade Townend and Zach Tupker – the Canadians had to rely on some of the players from the Tier 2 Carleton Place Canadians to make an impact with the Jr. A team.
“We have a really good Tier 2 team, those guys who’ve come in have played really well and we’ve still got a lot of the top guys from our normal team that are still here,” Knoblauch said. “We may not have the depth we normally do, but the guys have stepped in and been great.”
Ben Tupker, along with Connor Hill, was part of the Team Canada East selection camp for the World Jr. A Challenge but didn’t get named to the team. Friday’s game was the first for both players since returning from the camp and Tupker had a goal and an assist.
“This is just what Ben Tupker does,” Clarke said. “This is the first time he’s been separated from playing with his brother so it was good to see him bounce back and have a very solid game playing with different line-mates.”
Tupker was put on a line with Broughman and Peyton Francis, a line that combined for two goals and had each player have a two-point night on Friday.
“They just did a lot of really good things down low, below the hash-marks. They won a lot of one-on-one battles, they were very evasive moving east and west. They were able to beat their guy one-on-one and take the puck to the net and get into areas a little quicker than Pembroke’s defenders.”
The Canadians next game is on Sunday when they host the Rockland Nationals at 3 p.m. and will look to keep their current streak of points in 23 consecutive games (21-0-0-2) alive.
