Ottawa, ON – Saturday night in Carleton Place featured a back-and-forth contest packed with momentum swings, special-teams action, and standout performances, ultimately ending with the Jr. Canadians taking a 5–4 shootout victory over the visiting Smiths Falls Jr. Bears.
Carleton Place 5 Smiths Falls 4 (SO)
Smiths Falls opened the scoring midway through the first period when Brody Nielissen buried his 11th of the season off a setup from Caleb and Timothy Bourne. Carleton Place responded early in the second on the power play, with Byron Box tying the game after a feed from Reid Hapke, who quietly pieced together a strong night.
The Jr. Canadians built on that momentum minutes later when Noah Green struck for his first of two goals, giving Carleton Place its first lead. Smiths Falls answered back before the frame closed, as Timothy Bourne finished off a passing play from Caleb Bourne and Nielissen to send the game to the third tied 2–2.
The Jr. Bears regained the lead just 41 seconds into the third when Jordan Parsons scored on a power play, but Green responded again for Carleton Place less than two minutes later, burying his second of the night to even the score once more. Smiths Falls quickly countered, with Bourne netting his second goal of the game to make it 4–3, only for the Jr. Canadians to battle back yet again. Xavier Boissonneault tied the game at 12:04, finishing a pass from Karter Dube to force overtime and eventually a shootout.
In the skills competition, Adamo Ghantous and Luke Humby both scored for Carleton Place, while Sebastien Janisch shut the door at the other end, stopping all Smiths Falls attempts to secure the win. Janisch finished the night with 34 saves, while Smiths Falls’ Cole King made 19 stops in the loss.
With the victory, Carleton Place improves to 7-13-2-0, while Smiths Falls drops to 8-14-0-1.
