Tim Ruhnke – Recorder & Times
Jesse Winchester was on the mark when he said recently that goals don’t always come easily for the Brockville Braves.
Case in point for the coach of the Jr. A team was the 100-shot night in Kanata on Thursday when the Braves visited the Lasers.
Antonie Bourdeau stopped all but one of the 48 shots on net he faced for Brockville, but his counterpart Gabriel Carriere was a perfect 51 for 51 as Kanata shut out the visitors 2-0.
“Our goalie played unbelievably well,” Winchester stated in an interview on Friday. “We lost to a team that was more hungry.”
Matthew Maggio scored the winner for the Lasers in the second period, and Derek St. Jean added an empty-netter with eight seconds left in regulation.Although Brockville managed to rack up a big total when it came to shots on net Thursday, the coach indicated that many of them were not quality scoring chances.
“Our team forgot to show up,” he remarked.
Kanata was 16 points behind Brockville in the CCHL’s Robinson Division standings prior to their game Thursday.
The good thing, according to Winchester, is that the Braves didn’t have much down time to think about the loss. They hosted Rockland at the Memorial Centre on Friday night and edged the Nationals 4-3.
Eric Faith scored in the first, assisted by Justin McCrae.
Cole Craft responded for Rockland in the second, followed by two other goals by Braves Sam Allison (Casey, Spratt) and Chris Brown (DiGregorio, Weir).
Nicholas Wildgoose returned the favour for the Nationals later in the second to keep it interesting. Brown scored the game-winner (Jones), to which Rockland responded with a goal by Gunnar Smith.
The coach observed that the players have been “pretty consistent” with their level of competitiveness this season.There is bound to be a bad game here and there during a 62-date regular season, Winchester said.
The Braves were a close second behind Carleton Place in the CCHL’s Robinson Division standings entering play this weekend, with Brockville having two games in hand.The Braves will take on the Raiders in Nepean on Sunday afternoon. Brockville travels to Kemptville on Wednesday; puck drops at the North Grenville Municipal Centre at 7:30 p.m. The Braves’ next home game will be against Cornwall on Friday, Feb. 8.
Original Story at Recorder.ca
