Recorder & Times Staff
It was a night of downs and ups for the Brockville Braves.
Brockville trailed Hawkesbury 5-1 in their CCHL match-up at the Memorial Centre on Friday, when the Braves came back to tie the game only to lose in a shootout. By picking up one point, Brockville now has a two-point lead on Rockland for the #2 seed with three games left in the regular season.
The Hawks were up 2-0 early the first period when Parker Casey’s 15th goal of the season cut the lead in half at 6:51. Seven seconds after Hawkesbury had scored its third goal of the second period to go up 5-1, Brockville’s Josh Barnes made it 5-2 on his 10th goal of the year.
Austin Paul’s power-play goal at 2:06 of the third cut the lead to two; it was his 20th goal of the season. Troy Bowditch made it 5-4 with just under six minutes left in the period; it was his 19th goal of the year. Braves captain Simon Kerr’s 17th goal of the season tied the game at 16:41.
Kris Pietroniro scored in the fourth round of the shootout to give the visitors the extra point.
Hawkesbury outshot Brockville 59-31 in three periods and overtime. Jake Begley made 54 saves for the Braves and got tagged with the 6-5 overtime loss.
Dovar Tinling of the Hawks was named first star; Kerr and Pietroniro were the second and third stars. Memorial Centre attendance was 301.
The Braves racked up 62 penalty minutes compared to 22 for Hawkesbury. A skirmish in the Brockville end 53 seconds into the game resulted in Begley being shaken up and the Braves’ Konnor MacCormick being assessed multiple infractions that included leaving the bench.
Brockville (36-14-3-6) takes on the first-place Canadians in Carleton Place on Sunday at 3 p.m. and then has a rematch with Hawkesbury at the Memorial Centre on Friday night. The Hawks are currently the #4 seed in the league.
Original Story at Recorder.ca
