CHRIS UHLIG
It’s a wrap folks! The quest for the Bogart Cup came to an end Wednesday night at the Den with a 2:5 loss of the Bears against the Navan Grads. The team gave its best, but in the end it wasn’t meant to be, c’est la vie.
Smiths Falls started off strong on the offensive, yet the wanted results remained elusive. Instead it was Navan’s Sebbie Johnson who scored first at 4:57 in the first period. The Grads continued in the second period to add more cushions to their lead. Cristobal Tola scored an unassisted goal at 5:03 and Nicholas Paone sent the puck into the Bears’ net with a powerplay goal at 19:42. The third period didn’t start any better. Colin MacDougall scored yet another power play goal for the Grads at 0:52 and then went on to nail an unassisted goal at 3:10. For a while it looked as if the game was about to become a reverse of the previous game. Jackson Heron finally managed to give the Bears a spot on the scoreboard at 9:02, assisted by Davis Hails and Matthew Dimaline. Owen Watson bears the honour of the final and last score of the 2024 playoff season at the 16:01 mark with the assist credited to Davis Hails and Trevor Faucher.
Smiths Falls outshot Navan 29 to 22, but the team was not able to bring enough pucks past Navan’s goalie Jaeden Nelson, who consequently earned First Star. The Grads’ Colin MacDougall was awarded Second Star and our own Davis Hails took Third Star.
The Bears were of course visibly disappointed about the painful loss and especially goalie Dawson Labre couldn’t hide his frustration, blaming himself, but frankly, the boys all played exceptionally good hockey and the fortunes could have swung either way.
On the other side Navan of course celebrated the winof the 2024 Bogart Cup with much joy and they need to be congratulated for their achievement as well, it’s but a game after all.
Let’s finish the end of the season in style with the words of the Bears:
“THANK YOU, Thank you for bringing the best energy and support in the CCHL. Thank you for filling the seats in the Bears Den every Friday night and making sure opposing teams could hear what our town is all about.
We’ll be back.”
