Braves take on Bears – Recorder & Times

Tim Ruhnke – Recorder & Times

The Brockville Braves will try to end a three-game losing streak on Tuesday.

Brockville will head up County Road 29 to play the Smiths Falls Bears; puck drops at 7:30. The Braves have won three of their four games against the Bears so far this season; Smiths Falls won the fourth game in a shootout.

Entering the second-last week of the regular season, the Braves remain in second place in the CCHL’s Robinson Division but have slipped to the third seed in the league. Rockland is now one point ahead of Brockville, although the Braves have played two fewer games than the Nationals.

Brockville followed up a home loss to Pembroke on Friday night with a 4-1 defeat in Kemptville on Sunday afternoon. The Braves jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first period on Justin McRae’s 24th goal of the season, but the 73’s went on to score four unanswered goals in the second and third.

Brockville outshot Kemptville 34-26. Simon Harkness took the loss in net for the Braves. McRae was third star of the game, behind Ryan Pawlikowski and Dante Moretti of the 73’s.

The Braves also outshot the Lumber Kings in Brockville on Friday night, but Pembroke skated away with a 5-2 victory.  Blair Battochio gave the Lumber Kings a 1-0 lead late in the first period. Cameron Hough made it 2-0 at 5:51 of the second. Brockville’s Josh Barnes cut the lead in half just over a minute later; the power-play marker was his eighth goal of the season.

Andrew Poulias scored on a power play with 49 seconds left in the period to restore Pembroke’s two-goal lead, and Dennis Golovatchev made it 4-1 at 2:27 of the third. The Braves’ Matthieu Wuth scored a short-handed goal at 5:53 to cut into the lead. It was Wuth’s seventh goal of the season.

Lumber Kings captain and Prescott-area native Jacob Shankar closed out the scoring with just under four minutes left in regulation.

Lumber Kings goaltender Reece Proulx was named first star. Poulias and Wuth were the second and third stars. Attendance at the Brockville Memorial Centre was listed at 350.

The Braves (35-14-3-4) also have a road game in Cornwall on Thursday night before returning home to host Hawkesbury on Friday night. The Hawks are fourth overall in the league, seven points behind Brockville.

The Braves received an honourable mention from the CJHL in its weekly national top 20 list released on Monday. Carleton Place moved up from eighth to fourth. No other CCHL teams were listed.

Original Story at Recorder.ca