Coyne returns to haunt Canadians, Carleton Place still gained ground
Posted Jan 28, 2010 By Jeff Maguire
Email
Print
Tweet ThisEMC Sports - It didn't take long for Sam Coyne to come back to haunt his former Carleton Place teammates!
The 20-year-old Perth native, who played 39 games for Canadians before being traded to Gloucester Rangers at the junior hockey trade deadline Jan. 10, scored twice to lead Rangers to a 5-4 win at Carleton Place and District Community Centre Saturday night.
The loss snapped a two-game winning run for Carleton Place and prevented them from moving closer to the idle Kemptville 73's in the fight for the eighth and final playoff place in the Central Junior Hockey League (CJHL).
Coyne scored the first goal of the game at 3:55 of the opening frame. His second and fourth in as many games since joining Gloucester, came just 39 seconds into the third period as the visitors built a 5-1 lead.
Coyne, who played last season for Brockville Braves before being traded to Kanata Stallions at last year's trade deadline, is currently playing for his fourth team in two seasons. He was dealt to Gloucester in exchange for goalie Francis Dupuis who played for Carleton Place Saturday, making 25 saves in a losing cause.
At the time of the trade Coyne was Canadians' third leading scorer with 32 points including a dozen goals.
Carleton Place did make a fist of it Saturday, scoring three straight goals in a span of 10 minutes, 35 seconds in the final frame to climb back into the game. They were unable to get the equalizer, despite out shooting the visitors 31-30 overall.
Despite the disappointment of the loss to the much improved Rangers, who are second in the Yzerman Division and fourth overall in the CJHL standings, the expansion Canadians did manage to gain a little ground last week in their bid to catch and surpass Kemptville. Carleton Place won in Kanata last Tuesday (Jan. 19) and blanked Nepean at community centre Friday night.
Meanwhile Kemptville lost both their games last week, although one defeat was in a shootout at Hawkesbury which means they earned one point.
In Saturday's game former Stittsville Royals' (Junior B) star forward Michael Webley also scored twice for Rangers to earn first star honours.
Mathieu White had the other Rangers' tally while veteran forward Nick Vidoni assisted twice giving him 61 points on the campaign.
Defenceman Rusty Hafner netted the final two goals for Carleton Place, just over six minutes apart, including a shorthanded effort at 17:55 which pulled the home team close. Hafner, an 18-year-old from Toledo, Ohio, now has eight goals and 19 points.
Carleton Place scoring leader Tyler Kotlarz notched No. 23 and added an assist while centre Ryan Lowe fired his sixth and set up another in a losing cause. Kotlarz now has 43 points while Lowe is third on the team list with 34 points including a team leading 28 assists.
Morgan Hudson, also an ex Stittsville Jr. B player, made 27 saves to record his 12th goaltending win against four defeats this season.
Referee Patrick Brown signaled just seven penalties in the game, five of which went to Carleton Place. The locals lost centre Zach Allen after just six minutes, 40 seconds when he was tagged for checking from behind. The penalty carries an automatic game misconduct.
Canadians' head coach Jason Clarke was obviously displeased with Brown's work. He picked up the final penalty of the game, a harassment of official misconduct at the final buzzer.
SHACKELL STEADY
The play of goalie Scott Shackell has been one of the big success stories in Carleton Place's inaugural campaign in the CJHL. Friday night the 6' 4" net minder stood even taller. He recorded his league-leading sixth shut out as Canadians blanked Nepean Raiders 4-0.
The win, coupled with Kemptville's 4-3 shootout loss to last place Hawkesbury Hawks, moved Carleton Place within three points of 73's for the eighth and final playoff place.
Still, it was the 19-year-old Shackell who was the big story! He turned aside all 31 shots directed his way to earn first star honours. In the process he lowered his goals against average (GAA) to 3.28, eighth best in the league. The win also moved him above the .500 mark in wins and losses at 17-16, including one shootout defeat.
The only goaltender close to Shackell in the shut out department is Scott Zacharias of Pembroke Lumber Kings who has five. Carleton Place native Matt Jenkins, now of Smiths Falls Bears (he started the season in Brockville), is next with three '0's.
Local product Kyle Phillips scored his first goal in Junior A hockey Friday. The ex-Carleton Place Legion Kings' (Junior B) star netted what turned out to be the game winner at 2:46 of the opening period. The 18-year-old left winger was later selected the game's second star.
Canadians out shot Raiders 35-31 and they held interval leads of 1-0 and 2-0. The triumph was the club's 20th in their first year in the league. By contrast Kemptville, the last expansion team in 2007, won just 15 contests in each of their first two campaigns.
With the victory Canadians evened the season series with the Yzerman Division Raiders at 2-2. The rubber match will be played in Carleton Place Feb. 26.
The locals got another big effort out of newcomer Bryan Warner Friday. Warner, who was acquired from Brockville in a deal just before the junior hockey trade deadline, triggered his fourth goal in six games. He had just six in 28 appearances for the league-leading Braves.
Warner's goal was one of three powerplay markers for Carleton Place. The other two came off the sticks of Hafner and forward Aaron MacCosham (also an ex-King) late in the third period. The visitors ran into penalty trouble in the late going and that opened the door for Canadians to put an exclamation mark on the win.
Hafner's effort was his sixth and MacCosham now has eight. Their goals came just 28 seconds apart after Nepean defenceman Zachary Carriveau was handed a major penalty for holding, along with a game misconduct at 16:39 of the final frame.
Newcomer Michel Kowalew was the losing net minder making 31 saves.
Referee Brad Crawford whistled 16 penalties, 10 of them against the visitors. The only majors were to Raiders' Carriveau.
CORRAL STALLIONS
In Kanata last Tuesday night (Jan. 19) Carleton Place doubled the hapless Stallions 4-2.
Every point is important if the club hopes to qualify for the post-season. But this one was crucial as it came against the team with the second worst record in the loop.
Stallions have improved after their absolutely horrendous start to the campaign during which they set the CJHL record for futility, dropping 26 straight games. At 9-38-2-2 (following weekend action) Kanata's record is still nothing to write home about. But in their previous game against Carleton Place on Jan. 3 they out scored Canadians 9-7 at community centre.
Last Tuesday Canadians were desperate for a win and they got it, thanks largely to the three-goal lead they established in the first period. The triumph gave Carleton Place the season series between the teams as it was Canadians fourth win in five starts against Kanata. The teams meet once more this season in Carleton Place on Friday, Feb. 12.
At Kanata Recreation Complex it was two new additions that sparked the Carleton Place triumph. Veteran goalie Dupuis made his second straight start, turning aside 36 shots as the home team out chanced Carleton Place 38-33.
On the offensive side newly arrived Warner tallied twice to pace the attack. He opened scoring at 3:05 of the opening frame and then netted what proved to be the insurance goal at 3:43 of the second period.
Richard Stethem, Canadians' second leading scorer, came up with a shorthanded, unassisted effort at 6:36 of period one as the visitors claimed an early 2-0 advantage. It was Stethem's 16th goal and 38th point of the campaign.
His goal led to the removal of Kanata starting goalie Travis Wilkins who gave up two goals on seven shots before being replaced by Sebastien Parker who went the rest of the way.
Smiths Falls' native MacCosham made it 3-0 for the visitors at 17:37 of the opening stanza.
However, Stallions' ace Allan McPherson got his team on the scoreboard with goal No. 27 of the campaign just one minute, two seconds after the third Carleton Place strike of the night.
Veteran forward Brandon Timm, on a set-up from McPherson, closed the gap to 4-2 at 11:48 of the second. Timm's 17th of the season was the final goal of the night as nearly half the contest was scoreless.
Third year centre Timm is second in scoring for Kanata with 31 points in 49 appearances.
Referee Chad White called a total of 11 minor penalties with half a dozen going to the home team. Warner and MacCosham each had powerplay goals for Carleton Place who was 2-6 with the man advantage.
Canadians' forward Brock Plouffe continued his strong play with two assists giving him an impressive 21 points in just 18 games. That was good for fifth on the team scoring chart following Tuesday's action. Plouffe too is a former Carleton Place King!
Warner and Dupuis were named the game's first and third stars respectively with the flashy McPherson a very deserving second star.
Carleton Place begins an important home and home series with near neighbour Smiths Falls Bears Friday night in Smiths Falls. The puck drops at 7:30. Sunday afternoon at 1:30 Bears will be in town for the return match, the final game of the season between teams who have quickly become arch rivals. Both teams could miss the post season as Canadians are ninth overall and Smiths Falls 10th.
Going into this weekend's set Carleton Place has won three of four meetings with Smiths Falls in this, their inaugural season in Junior A hockey.
blog comments powered by Disqus
