No Valley Division team has wrestled the Metro-Valley Conference title away from the Metro side since 1996.
And as a wise old English teacher once said, “It don’t look good this year, either.”
The Ottawa Canadians are just a single win away from running that impressive streak to 17 years as they head back to Renfrew for game 4 of this year’s conference final Friday at 8 p.m.
The Canadians put another 7 on the scoreboard for a second consecutive night en route to their 3-0 series lead at the Brian Kilrea Arena Tuesday night.
It was 7-0 before the Wolves answered with two token markers in the final stanza.
Canadians 7, Wolves 2
The Wolves showed much more passion than that of the 7-0 home-ice loss the night before, but the results were the same.
The Renfrew club had its scoring opportunities, but couldn’t finish off.
In the meantime, the Canadians finish as well as any team in the league. Another quick start saw them in custody of 2-0 and 5-0 leads at the period intervals.
Taylor Collins had a pair of goals to steer the Ottawa attack. Jordan Fequet, Zack Rheaume, Josh Hartley, Scott Mcilroy and Ben Hartley supplied singles.
Jamie Molinski added another three assists, giving him seven in that department in just over 24 hours.
Casey Doner and Kurtis Leclaire notched powerplay markers for the Wolves in the third period.
Doner’s marker at 6:29 broke a Renfrew goalless streak of 119:34, or 26 seconds shy of a full two games dating back to the 6:55 mark of the third period of game 1 when Scott Conroy connected on a breakaway.
Doner’s tally also set off a brawl which upped penalty totals to 282 minutes for the night.
A main event featured the two goaltenders, the Canadians Matt Couvrette and Nicholas Hodgins of the Wolves. Hodgins had taken over goalcrease duties in relief of Matt Gagne in a 5-0 game at the start of the third period.
Another good tilt involved the two No. 5s, Wolves defenceman Nolan Rook and Ottawa’s Adam Baxter. It was the fight that didn’t seem to want to end.
The Wolves also lost the services of blueliner Erik Mask, in a scrap with the Canadians Zack Rheaume.
Ottawa captain Patrick Marsh also received an early exit.
Wolves howlings
Tuesday night’s win runs a Canadians playoff winning streak to 10 games.
They haven’t lost since game 3 of their Metro Division semifinal series against the Ottawa West Golden Knights.
The Wolves had been on a 15-and-2 run until meeting up with Ottawa.
Metro-Valley Final
• Saturday, March 16 - Ottawa 6, Renfrew 4;
• Monday, March 18 - Ottawa, 7 Renfrew 0;
• Tuesday, March 19 - Ottawa 7, Renfrew 2;
• Friday, March 22 in Renfrew - 8 p.m.;
• Tuesday, March 26 in Ottawa - 7:15 p.m.;
• Friday. March 29 in Renfrew - 7:30 p.m. (Good Friday);
• Saturday, March 30 in Ottawa - 7:15 p.m.
Around the Loop
The Athens Aeros have levelled their Rideau-St. Lawrence Conference final with the Casselman Vikings in dramatic fashion.
Michael Byrne scored 10:21 into overtime to give the Aeros a 6-5 win at Centre 76 Tuesday evening.
Game 3 is Thursday night in Casselman.
These two teams also met in last spring’s conference final. The Vikings won on the way to capturing their first Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League championship.