Harper Cotie – Voice of the Braves
The start to the new year hasn’t gone the way the Brockville Braves hoped it would with just one win through their first four games of 2025. This past weekend, the Braves played in a back-to-back against the Navan Grads and the Hawkesbury Hawks on Friday and Saturday with a 5-1 victory over Navan and a 4-1 loss to Hawkesbury.
After trailing 1-0 through 20 minutes of play in Friday’s game vs. the Grads, the Braves exploded offensively with five unanswered goals in the final 40 minutes, and heavily outshot the opposition 47-21. However, on Saturday in Hawkesbury, the Hawks did what the Braves were able to do to the Grads on Friday night.
Brockville got off to a great start with an opening goal from recent Clarkson University commit, Grady Spicer at 14:02 in the first period, but then surrendered four unanswered goals while allowing 49 shots to their 28 and lost the game 4-1. Towards the end of 2024, Head Coach/GM, Dustin Traylen stressed the need for this team to learn how to win in back-to-back situations and so far in 2025, that issue still exists.
Speaking of Traylen, he was busy adding to the group last week with three separate transactions starting with the addition of veteran defenseman Charles Poudrette from the Ottawa Jr. Senators in exchange for blueliner Owen Traynor, prospects Mario Gianetti and Bennett Desroches, along with a player development fee (PDF). Poudrette registered a point in his Braves debut with an assist on Kellen Dostaler’s powerplay goal at 4:21 in the second period during Friday’s game vs. Navan.
Also making their Braves debuts over the weekend were Garrett Nystrom, a 6-foot-6 defender who was acquired from Caledon of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL) for a PDF, and forward Hunter Robitaille, who was a free agent signing from the U.S. Premier Hockey League. Hunter is the son of former Ottawa Senator Randy Robitaille, who played in 531 NHL games during his career.
Next up for the Brockville Braves is a home game against the Cornwall Colts this Friday (January 17) on FloHockey! Puck drop is 7:30.