Canadians out of playoffs despite two victories last week
Posted Feb 25, 2010 By Jeff Maguire
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Tweet ThisEMC Sports - What has appeared to be inevitable for several weeks finally occurred Friday night when Carleton Place Canadians were officially eliminated from the Central Junior Hockey League (CJHL) playoff race.
The expansion club gave a good account of themselves in their first campaign of Junior A hockey. But after sitting in the eighth and final playoff place for many weeks, they were unable to stave off a determined second half performance by the Kemptville 73's.
Despite doubling Cornwall Colts, the third place team overall, by a 6-3 count at community centre Friday, Carleton Place saw their bid for a post season place end when Kemptville edged visiting Nepean Raiders 4-3.
It was the sixth win in 10 games for 73's (26-25-0-5) who secured eighth place and will make their first post season appearance in three campaigns in the league. Kemptville was the previous CJHL expansion club in 2007.
Not that 73's are likely to progress very far when the playoffs begin the second week of March! Kemptville will meet either three-time defending league champion Pembroke Lumber Kings or Brockville Braves in the opening round of the post season. Lumber Kings and Braves are the class of the league and are fighting a neck-and-neck battle for first place overall as the season winds down.
In Carleton Place Friday, Canadians shook off the sting of a 6-1 defeat in Cornwall 24 hours earlier to record their first win in six tries against Colts.
Despite a high number of penalties, Friday's game was tame compared to the contest at Cornwall Civic Complex Thursday during which three players from each team were ejected for fighting. No one got the heave-ho Friday!
Carleton Place (23-33-1-1) was an efficient three-for-seven on the powerplay and that proved to be the difference. Canadians led 3-1 and 5-1 at the intervals and they cruised to victory despite being out shot 31-27.
Francis Dupuis was steady in goal making 28 saves to even his Carleton Place record at 3-3.
Aaron MacCosham led the winners with a pair of goals to take his total to an even dozen. The former Carleton Place Legion Kings' (Junior B) star has been a good addition to the club with 24 points in 42 appearances.
Carleton Place scoring leader Tyler Kotlarz scored his team best 27th goal of the campaign and assisted twice to take his totals to 53 points. Richard Stethem, the second leading scorer for the locals with 48 points, notched his 18th goal while centre Ryan Lowe struck for No. 10 and set up a pair. Lowe's 42 points is third best on the club. Defenceman Donovan Gardiner notched his ninth goal and assisted once.
League goal scoring leader Jacob Laliberte, who had a hat trick the previous night, led Colts with two more goals to take his total to 56. Laliberte also set up Mathieu Ouellette's late consolation, with just 1:21 left to play. The assist gave Laliberte an even 100 points.
Will Landa was the losing net minder.
Referee Scott Loney called 24 penalties, a dozen to each club. There were three misconducts, with Canadians picking up a pair of 10 minute infractions.
Just 153 fans, one of the lowest attendances of the campaign, took in the late-season action.
FIGHT NIGHT
As the season winds down and with a playoff place having slipped away frustration has set in for the Carleton Place team.
Last Thursday night in Cornwall the visiting Canadians fell 6-1 to the Colts who won five of six meetings with their Robinson Division rivals this season.
Playing before 969 fans at Ed Lumley Arena in the Cornwall Civic Complex, the visitors were never in this one, trailing 5-0 after 20 minutes.
After that hockey took a back seat as "Friday Night at the Fights" erupted 24 hours early.
Following two periods of chippy hockey and fisticuffs - most of the by-play happened at the 16 second mark of the third period - Carleton Place had picked up a season high 90 minutes in penalties and had three players ejected. For their part Colts were assessed 69 minutes by busy referee Patrick Brown who handed out 29 penalties, 15 of them to Carleton Place. Three Cornwall players were relegated to early showers as well.
Hardly how Canadians want to end their campaign! But the overmatched team clearly ran out of patience and the result was a night to forget in Cornwall.
For the record the Carleton Place players ejected were forward Zach Rodier and defencemen Gardiner and Rusty Hafner. The usually quiet Hafner, who has just 31 minutes in penalties in 56 games, even managed to get involved in a second fight.
Colts lost wingers Ty Perry and Kevin Cole and defenceman Darren Laurie, with the latter also picking up a second fighting misconduct in a very unfriendly third period.
When hockey was an issue the third place Colts got a pair of first period goals from Laliberte, including one on a powerplay. He completed his hat trick with the only goal of the final stanza and that play set off the fighting which marred the game. With the three goals Laliberte retained third place in the CJHL scoring race.
Tyson Spink also had a first period powerplay goal, his 21st of the campaign, for the winners. Sebastien Meltzer opened scoring at 7:04 and Eric Ming notched his 18th at 10:34. Ming's tally was the game winner!
Bryan Warner scored the only Carleton Place goal at 13:12 of the middle stanza. It was his sixth in 14 appearances for the team.
Landa was the winning net minder, making 23 stops. Dupuis was the loser, turning aside 25 shots as Cornwall out shot Carleton Place 31-24.
HUMBLE HAWKS
Carleton Place completely dominated visiting Hawkesbury Hawks, the last place team in the Robinson Division and the league, during their 'Family Day' afternoon encounter at community centre last Monday (Feb. 15).
The final score, 6-1 in favour of the home side, doesn't tell the whole story!
Canadians out shot Hawks by a huge 49-27 margin and dominated the contest territorially to improve their record.
Affiliated player Anthony McVeigh, a rookie making only his second Junior A start, stole the offensive spotlight in this one. McVeigh, a 16-year-old centre from Kemptville, scored two powerplay goals to lead the Carleton Place offence.
He played 27 games for Perth Blue Wings (Junior B) this season, scoring nine goals and adding 22 assists in just 27 appearances for Blue Wings who finished on top of the Valley Division standings. Perth is currently battling Almonte Thunder (formerly Carleton Place Legion Kings) in the Valley semi finals and McVeigh is expected to be a big part of their playoff drive.
Another affiliated player, Steven Miller a 16-year-old winger who normally plays for the Junior B Almonte Thunder, also started his second game as Canadians' management looks ahead to next season. Miller, a 6' 3", 190 pound right winger, connected for his first goal to wrap up scoring in the game at 12:50 of the third period.
Carleton Place led 1-0 after 20 minutes on McVeigh's first of the afternoon at 11:39 of the opening stanza.
In the second period rugged winger Warner, acquired in a trade deadline (Jan. 10) deal with Brockville Braves, notched his fifth to make it 2-0.
Hawkesbury forward Brayden Clancy struck for Hawks' only goal, his first in 14 appearances for the club, with 3:08 remaining in the second. But with 15 seconds left in the frame McVeigh made it 3-1 and Carleton Place was not threatened again.
Almonte's Luke Martin netted his 11th goal, a shorthanded effort at 2:34 of the final stanza, to make it a 4-1 game. Kotlarz triggered his 26th of the season at 12:16 and Miller then rounded out scoring in the game.
Kotlarz moved to 50 points even with his goal and left winger Stethem, who assisted twice in the game, remained a solid second on Canadians' list.
Referee Jay Shaw whistled 18 penalties 10 of which went to the visitors, including a third period double minor for spearing to Hawkesbury defenceman Craig Myeroff.
Dupuis was steady in the Carleton Place goal stopping 26 shots to earn his second win against an equal number of losses. Dupuis has now appeared in seven games, including three straight, since being acquired in a deadline trade with Gloucester Rangers.
Dylan BrindAmour made 43 saves to keep the score respectable for Hawkesbury. BrindAmour, who was named the game's second star, has just one victory in 18 decisions for the struggling Hawks who are in danger of their second consecutive last place finish in the league.
A holiday Monday crowd of 225 watched the action with newcomer McVeigh named the first star and Dupuis selected as the third star.
Canadians have won all four games played against Hawkesbury and the clubs wrap up the season with a home and home series in early March. The final game of the campaign for Carleton Place will be against Hawks at community centre on Saturday, March 6.
Wednesday Canadians visited Pembroke and tomorrow (Friday) the locals will host Nepean Raiders in a 7:30 p.m. engagement.
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