Playoff Preview | Perth vs Carleton Place

By: Mason Detre

 

Ottawa, ON – Sunday March 17th at 3pm., the Perth Blue Wings will host the Carleton Place Jr Canadians in game one of their best of seven Richardson Division Finals.

Schedule: Perth (27-12-5) vs Carleton Place (25-16-3)

Game 1 Sunday March 17th at Perth  3:00pm

Game 2 Tuesday March 19th at Carleton Place 7:15pm

Game 3 Friday March 22nd at Perth 7:30pm

Game 4 Sunday March 24th at Carleton Place 3:00pm

Game 5 Tuesday March 26th at Perth 7:30pm

Game 6 TBD at Carleton Place

Game 7 Friday March 29th at Perth 7:30pm

The Blue Wings are coming off a five game series win against Brockville. Carleton Place on the other hand became the first team to win their Wild Card Series and then win their next series against a #1 seed in the Richardson Division. This series is expected to come to the wire because their games were tight in the regular season.

In the season series, Carleton Place swept Perth 4-0 and outscored their opponent 13-to-7. The last time these teams met was on December 15th in CP where the Canadians won in overtime 4-3.

Perth’s keys to victory: 

The Blue Wings key to success in their last series was staying discipline, capitalize on big power play attempts and goaltending. Perth’s power play went 33.3% in their first serie, including 12 power-play goals. Head Coach Michael McLean says they would have lost to Brockville without “Good Team Discipline and that The best Penalty Killing System is NOT taking lazy or selfish penalties.”

McLean also mentioned that Brockville was very aggressive, emotional and a chippy team. “Our players did a solid job staying mentally focus on the job on hand – and ‘Doing Their Job’ – not worrying about things happening after the whistle and beyond our control.”

Goaltending was a factor. Jonathan Peacock and Darien Johnson both played well and gave them a chance to win. They will need to be key once again in able to move on. In McLean’s opinion -Carleton Place has the hottest goaltenders in the CCHL2. They must drive to the net and get to the tough areas to score.

These are two very different teams. McLean says Carleton Place is a powerful, well coached 4-Line, 6 defenseman and 2 goaltender Team. NO weaknessses. We need to compete for 75 shifts period. Carleton Place is going to score goals.

Finally, Mental Discipline will be key in this series. McLean added that “If we take bad penalties we will not win. We need everyone ALL-IN – executing OUR game plan. That is our best and only chance to advance. This series will be HUGE challenge for our team. I believe Carleton Place was the best team in our conference this Regular Season regardless of the standings.”

Shance Spencer (3 G / 4 A) and Ty Power (2 G / 5 A) are tied for first on the team in scoring with seven points while Murphy (2 G / 4 A) is stepping up with six points along with defenseman Jordan Currie (4 G / 2 A).

Carleton Place’s keys to victory:

The Canadians did a very good job scoring key goals at the big moments of the games, limiting Westport to only three power play goals in the series. One big surprise in the playoffs has been ’03 born foward Bill Gourgon who played with the CPC U18 team this year. He had at least point in four of the six games. Gourgon had two goals in game two, including the OT winner and now has  total of six points in the post-season.

Other players that stepped it up was Kyle Lightfoot, Olivier Carriere, Brennan Hill and Spencer Marshall who all have four goals. Head Coach Trevor Peters mentioned in the Wild Card Series Preview that they need to play together as a team. Carleton Place limited Westport to three power-play goals while being shorthanded. Discipline will be key in this series if they want to go to the Barkley Cup Final for the second consecutive year.

Owen Bennett was 2-2 in that series but Brody Bernard has had his best two games of the year, allowing one goal in game five and getting a shutout in Game six. Brody Bernard’s stat line to start the playoffs: 3-0, GAA 0.40, SV% .990 while Bennett is 3-1-2, 3.07 GAA and .909 SV% in the playoffs. Any of these goalies can start in the post-season and can give you what they can when it comes to big moments. Goaltending will be also key once again in the series.