Carleton Place
trounced the Kemptville 73’s, but didn’t fare so well against the Pembroke
Lumber Kings over the weekend.
On Friday, Pembroke opened the scoring with an early
power-play goal. The Lumber Kings scored again shortly after on a bit of a soft
shot and the Canadians’ bench reacted swiftly pulling goaltender Scott Shackell.
The Canadians had some trouble keeping the play in the
Pembroke zone, let alone getting off decent shots. But the home team eventually
got on the board after Aaron MacCosham hammered away at the puck at the crease.
The second period opened with the Canadians on a power play.
But it would be the Lumber Kings that would score next, after a pass from the
point found Damian Cross at the side of the Canadians’ net.
Canadians net minder Morgan Barr was forced to make some big
saves to keep the score close in a game which at times had a blistering pace.
Behind on the scoreboard by two goals, the Canadians had a
chance to catch up when Pembroke took a penalty with only a few minutes left in
the second period. But the chance was squandered when the Canadians’ MacCosham
was called for cross checking with 1:33 left to go.
The Canadians put the pressure on in the final frame and
forced Scott Zacharias to shine between the Pembroke posts.
The pressure paid off when Matt Thompson snuck one inside
the post to make it a 3-2 game.
An interference call on Thompson with five minutes left in
the game made getting that equalizing goal tough.
The tension on the ice and in the stands began to build and
a big save by Barr got the otherwise quiet crowd of 320 people making some
noise.
But penalty trouble returned and the Canadians’ Rusty Hafner
took an elbowing penalty with about two minutes left in the game. The Lumber
Kings power play took 26 seconds to do its job with Sebastien Poirier adding a
goal to his three assists and Pembroke took the 4-2 win.
Pembroke outshot Carleton
Place 34-31.
Carleton Place 6, Kemptville 1
The Canadians came back from that tough loss with a
much-needed win against Kemptville.
On Saturday, Matt Thompson fired the first goal of the night
as the Canadians went on rare scoring drive. Tyler Kotlarz then got a power
play goal before the first period ended. In a repeat of the first period,
Thompson got his second of the night and Donovan Gardiner used the power play
to get one more before the horn sounded.
The penalty box was put to good use in the final frame with
a flurry of roughing, fighting and unsportsmanlike conduct calls for both sides.
A total of about 97 minutes of penalties were handed out in the third period
alone.
Once most of that was out of the way, the Canadians added
two more goals in the third period. A power play goal put Zach Allen on the score
sheet and Kotlarz got his second of the night at about the mid-way point of the
final period putting the home team ahead 4-0.
Kemptville took away Morgan Barr’s shut out hopes when
Michael Rowbotham scored on a 73’s power play.
The Canadians play in Hawkesbury Oct. 23 with a 7:45 p.m.
start time. On Oct. 24 they’re back in Carleton Place to host Kanata at 7:30 p.m.