CHRIS UHLIG
This week’s action saw the Smiths Falls facing off not once but twice against the current undisputed number 1 team in the CCHL, the Navan Grads. The Bears lost the road game on February 27 1:3 and hoped to turn the fortune around at the home game Friday night, but this nut proved to be too hard to crack and the team had to take a 1:4 loss in the end.
350 hockey fans were nevertheless treated to an action packed fast paced game of generally exceptional quality.
Smiths Falls got off to a rough start with Navan’s Devon Savignac pounding the puck into Dawson Labres net only 1:33 into the first period. Sebbie Johnson followed up with a score at 11:30 and Shaan Kingwell notched an unassisted goal at 12:27 just to rub it in.
Lucas Culhane, assisted by Trevor Faucher and Owen Watson, finally managed to put the Bears onto the scoreboard with a beautiful powerplay goal late in the second period at 18:32, avoiding the embarrassment of a potential shootout situation. Tempers flared throughout the game, but the last minute of the second period saw some more serious extended fighting, much to the entertainment of the crowd.
The third period’s lone goal goes to Navan’s Devon Savignac once more for his second score of the game, this time however only into the vacated empty net.
Navan took the 4:1 win over the Bears home and in all fairness it must be assessed that they were the stronger team that night, if only by a little bit. While the Bears outshot the Grads quite considerably with 39 to 27 shots, the team does have trouble to translate this advantage into actual goals, an achilles heel the team has to work on a bit more, especially with the play-offs looming just around the corner.
First Star of the night went to Navan’s goalie Jaeden Nelson, Lucas Culhane took Second Star for his Bears goal, and Devon Savignac of the Grads earned Third Star for his two scores.
Smiths Falls still sits with 69 points comfortably at the top spot in the Robinson Division and in second spot overall in the league.
The next home game at the den will see the Bears taking on the Carleton Place Canadians on March 08th.
