Recap | Carleton Place 6, Ottawa West 3 – Thursday January 8th 2018
The Ottawa West Golden Knights were unable to hold onto their 2-1 lead in the first period as Carleton Place would score four unanswered goals from the end of the first, second and third period.
Despite the hard fought battle by the Golden Knights, assistant coach Kevin Groulx believed that their speed and all-around game got to the Knights.
“They are a good organization, they’re a well-coached team and they have a lot of young guys who play the right way. Every time you play a Carleton Place team you know you’re in a battle so it’s always going to be physically and mentally draining”.
With a hard fought battle comings a lot of positives and negatives but Kevin Groulx thinks this was a test for playoffs.
“Even though we lost, I think it was good for our guys to get through a game like this because that’s what it’s going to be come playoff time”.
After the Canadians opened the scoring early in the first period, Ottawa West scored back to back power-play goals coming from Lecours and Bidin to give West a 2-1 lead with 10 minutes remaining in the first period.
At that point it looked like Ottawa West was going to keep that lead going into the second but the Canadians answered back after Kealey took a weak shot from the point and Lister potted it in on the doorstep. It was tied at two after one period.
“We tried to make an adjustment in the first period but there was a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone so everyone was in transition mode” said Groulx after a high paced first period. “Off the get go, there was a lot of 3-on-2 and that’s where it got dangerous, but I thought we played well on the rush as well”.
Carleton Place took a 3-2 lead in the second period after Patton made a move at the blueline and passed it to the left half-boards for Mosley who fired it infront to an open Bolton who made no mistake, getting his first of two on the game – which was through the five-hole of Cuglietta.
“I can confirm that those guys (Mosley, Patton & Bolton) are Jr. A hockey players” mentioned Groulx on that Canadians first line. “Unfortunate for us but fortunate for them that they get to play in that organization but I know they will get their shot with the big club (CCHL Tier 1) and they will have good careers”.
With the Canadians entering the third period with a 3-2 lead, Kevin Groulx thought that the Golden Knights were still in the hockey game but ran into penalty trouble.
“Yeah we took a little too many but the extra penalties they called at the end of the game really made our coaching staff upset. Unfortunately the game got affected by the officials but no matter what, I liked our effort”.
The Canadians scored two more unanswered goals in the third period to take a 5-2 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the hockey game. The first goal came from Griffith which was a laser beam from the point top corner and their fifth goal was Marshall potting in another rebound goal on the doorstep.
With more penalties and rough stuff towards the end of the game, Ottawa West and Carleton Place would exchange power-play goals, but they would hold onto a three goal – 6-3 Canadians win at the Barbara Ann Scott arena. The loss extends the Golden Knights losing streak to two games.
With the game in reach in the later part of the third period, Groulx felt the game became a gongshow with all the penalties.
“This is a ref who has been known to take things personal and he called an extra bench minor on us and made a gongshow out of the game. Unfortunately there were two teams showing up and a lot of volunteers put time into this game and it’s unfortunate the officials had to make things personal and impact a game with two wonderful hockey clubs”.
Both teams had a flurry of power-play opportunities. The Golden Knights went 3-8 on the man advantage while the Canadians went 2-7.
The loss puts Ottawa West at a 7-4-1 record since the start of 2018 which is positive but they believe their biggest test will come tonight when they take on the Alexandria Glens at 8pm.
“I let everyone know that these last two games are the most important” noted Groulx. “This will make a big impact in the standings and tomorrow we have to get those two points and there is no other way to put it. We are going to go into Alexandria and we’re going to battle for those two points”.
A positive for tonight’s game against the Glens will be that Brad Odam will be back in the lineup after serving his four game suspension. This allows Lecours to go back to being a forward and give the Golden Knights toughness and leadership on the backend.
“He adds a great physical presence and leadership to our lineup. We look forward to having him back tomorrow”.
The Golden Knights take on the Glens at Glengarry tonight at 8pm. Diamond Dante and Mason Detre on the call.
