Tim Ruhnke – Recorder & Times
They were both decided by one goal.
The Brockville Braves split their home-and-home series with the Pembroke Lumber Kings on the weekend. After defeating Pembroke 4-3 in overtime at the Brockville Memorial Centre on Friday night, the Jr. A Braves were edged 6-5 by the Lumber Kings at the Pembroke Memorial Centre Sunday night.
Brockville Braves’ winning streak ends at three games
It was Brockville’s first loss of the 2025-2026 Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL) regular season.
Adrian Bonspille gave Pembroke the early lead at 1:45 of the first period on Sunday. The Braves drew even at 3:07 on Ryan McNally’s second goal of the season.
Goals by Felix Tremblay and Nathaniel Mongeau had the Lumber Kings up 3-1 at intermission, but McNally cut the lead in half 18 seconds into the second period and teammate Liam Harry tied the game at 3:05 on his first goal of the year. Brockville captain Kayden Buller gave the Braves their only lead of the night at 14:21; it was his third goal of the season. Alex Fortier evened the score at 15:48, and Evan Greco made it 5-4 for the Lumber Kings at 5:18 of the third period.
Brockville tied the game at 14:22 on Drake Sled’s first goal of the season, but Simon Kobylecki scored the game-winner with just over two minutes to go in regulation.
Brockville emptied its net in favour of an extra attacker with about 51 seconds left on the clock but was unable to score the equalizer.
The Lumber Kings outshot the Braves 43-31. Logan Heideman picked up the win in goal for Pembroke; Nate Galbraith made 37 saves for Brockville.
First star went to Kobylecki, who had a three-point night. Mongeau was named second star. Third star went to McNally, who also chipped in with an assist.
The Braves and Lumber Kings were assessed a total of 186 penalty minutes in Sunday’s home-and-home closer, about half of which came after time had expired.
After the 60 minutes had been played, the game ended in a fracas with former Lumber King Vital Dinis receiving a double minor for grabbing a facemask, a 10-minute misconduct for inciting an opponent, a second 10-minute misconduct for not going to the bench and a game misconduct for the two 10-minute misconducts.
For Pembroke, Denver Boismier was given a 10-minute misconduct for not going to the bench, goaltender Logan Heideman two minutes for leaving his crease, Olivier Lapointe a double minor for grabbing a face mask and a 10-minute misconduct penalty for inciting an opponent. Zack Naish of Brockville and Aidyn Urbach dropped the gloves, each receiving a five-minute fighting penalty. Urbach was also given a 10-minute game misconduct.
Friday night in Brockville, Dinis scored at 3:37 of overtime to give the Braves the extra point and their third win in a row to start the season. It was his second goal of the game and third of the season.
Dinis, who played for the Lumber Kings before joining the Braves last season, had given Brockville a 3-1 lead in the second period. Power-play goals from Jesse Lumsden and Peter Legostaev put the Braves up 2-0. It was Legostaev’s fifth goal of the year and Lumsden’s second.
The Lumber Kings scored twice in the third period to force overtime. Brockville outshot Pembroke 30-26. Oliver Li picked up the win in net for the Braves; Jack Ferguson was the Lumber Kings’ goalie Friday. Dinis was named first star. Second star went to teammate Volodymyr Karpachov, who had two assists. Christopher Clarke of Pembroke received the third star.
A crowd listed at 450 was on hand at the Brockville Memorial Centre.
Brockville (3-1) will host the Hawkesbury Hawks (1-2) on Friday night at 7:30. The Braves will the take on the Jr. Senators in Ottawa Saturday night.
Two weeks into the regular season, defending champion Rockland (3-0) is the lone undefeated squad in the 12-team league. The Nationals are ranked sixth nationally by the CJHL in its first top 20 list of the season. Smiths Falls is ranked 14th, followed in 18th by the Cornwall Colts (4-1). Brockville, the only other CCHL team in the national rankings announced on Monday, received an honourable mention.
With files from Anthony Dixon, Postmedia Network
Original Story at Recorder.ca
