Three first period goals were all the Carleton
Place Canadians (19-28-0-1) needed to gain two points at the expense of the
Stallions (8-37-2-2).
Carleton
Place found the back
of the net just over three minutes into the first period, when forward Bryan
Warner scored after line mate Ryan Legace crashed into the Kanata’s net.
Warner finished the game with two goals.
The Canadians added to their lead
three-and-a-half minutes later when defenseman Richard Stethem slapped a shot
from the Kanata
blue line that fooled Stallions goaltender Travis Wilkins.
Wilkins was pulled after allowing two goals on
seven shots. He was replaced by goaltender Sebastien Parker.
Parker played a solid game stopping 24 of 26
shots.
Carleton
Place forward Aaron
MacCosham scored on the power play, with a two-and-a-half minutes left in the
third to put his team up 3-0.
Special teams were a key factor in the
Canadians’ victory. On top of Stethem’s shorthanded goal, Carleton Place went 2-for-6 on the
power-play.
“We came out to a slow start,” said Stallions
defenseman Curtis Watson. “The penalties cost us, puts a strain on our key
players.”
The Canadians also killed off all five of the
Stallions power plays.
Kanata
star forward Allan McPherson scored his 27th goal of the year to cut the lead
to 3-1 with a little over a minute left in the first period, but Carleton Place’s
goaltending shut down the Stallions for the rest of the night.
McPherson finished the game with a goal and an
assist.
The Stallions only other goal came following a
mental error on the part of Canadians’ goaltender Francis Dupuis, who was
caught outside the net attempting to clear the puck.
McPherson was able to feed the puck to line mate
Brandon Timm who scored easily on a sprawling Dupuis cutting the lead to 4-2.
Dupuis, Carleton Place’s newest acquisition, had
a great game between the pipes stopping 36 of 38 shots, including a tremendous
glove save off of Kanata’s
Kyle Rankin with only a few minutes left in the third period.
“Our goalie bailed us out a lot,” said Canadians
forward Brock Plouffe. “We didn’t play our best game.”
Plouffe finished the game with two assists.
Dupuis was picked up at the trade deadline from
the Gloucester Rangers in exchange for forward Sam Coyne.
Canadians coach Jason Clarke was happy with
Dupuis’ performance against the Stallions.
“Our goaltender really was our best player
tonight,” said Clarke.
Although Clarke was pleased with his team’s
performance in the first period, he was less than impressed with how they
played the next 40 minutes.
“Overall it wasn’t one of our best efforts,”
said Clarke. “It’s disappointing for them to come out like that in the second
and third.”
Carleton
Place is currently
in a tight battle with Kemptville for the final playoff spot in the CJHL
Yzerman division.
Although Kanata
is now officially out of the playoff hunt, Watson was optimistic about the
team’s future.
“We’re coming together as a team,” said Watson.
“We will keep getting better and hopefully some of our guys will develop.”
On the brighter side, long-time members of the
Kanata Stallions organization were honoured Tuesday night for their years of
service.
Andy Gullock, equipment manager, and Claude
Wilson, stats keeper, were both awarded “Friends of the CJHL” certificates by
the CJHL’s director of information Peter Peckett.
“Claude and I have been here since it started,”
said Gullock, who enjoyed playing house league hockey throughout his childhood.
“We came in ’87, been here 23 years.”
“I’ve had a lot of fun watching the kids come up
over the years,” said a smiling Wilson.
“It also keeps me out of trouble.”
The Stallions next home game is on Tuesday, Jan.
26 at the KRC against the Gloucester Rangers.