News

Jonathon Brodie - Recorder & Times

Friday’s 3-0 loss to the the Cornwall Colts at home might have been the Brockville Braves toughest defeat of the season.

The Braves had reaped the benefits of following coach Colin Birkas' system back in November when they beat the Pembroke Lumber Kings 4-1. That win left the bench boss to remark, “I’m happy we got the results because if you tell them to do something and they do it and they’re rewarded, they’ll do it again.”

Birkas’ team followed his system consistently throughout Friday night again, but this time they were rewarded with squat.

“It was the first time we had it this year where I thought we came in, we executed, we pushed the pace and we did everything we talked about all week,” Birkas said after the fourth time Brockville had been shutout this season. “So, I’m really disappointed with the result, but I’m happy with the effort and attention to detail.”

The Braves didn’t get a chance to ease their way back into a rhythm after a two-week holiday. Instead they dived right in against the Colts on Friday in a game that was back-and-forth all night.

At times there seemed like there were more hits than shots in the game and there were plenty of shots on both sides.

Birkas listed a litany of Braves players that had chances to score — “(Chad) Varney should have had three. (Newcomer Reid) Murphy was alone in the slot, (Corey) Caruso, (Devin) Moore.”

He’s definitely missing a few names as well.

“There was some seeing eye shots from the point that looked like they were going to go in, we could see daylight and then it would hit a hip or hits a foot and it was in the corner,” Birkas said.

What Brockville didn’t have Friday was the best goalie on the ice and that’s something that can seldom be said around the Braves as Henry Johnson has been lights out all season.

Cornwall opened the scoring in the final minute of the second period before tacking on two more in the the third frame in a span of 14 seconds.

The reigning goalie of the year wasn’t bad, but it was Colts Liam Lascelle making more stops than a city bus to record his third shutout of the season.
Lascelle finished the night with 40 saves and pushed Cornwall’s win streak to seven games.

“At the end of the day their goaltender out-performed ours,” Birkas said. “I wouldn’t say (that) if I didn’t expect (Johnson) to run the table the rest of the way. It wasn’t that he was bad, it was that the other goalie out-performed our guy, which nine out of 10 times is not going to happen.”

At times the game felt more like a matchup reserved for the post-season with the way both teams used a mix of skill and hard-nosed hockey and if that’s the case Birkas takes some solace in knowing his team stuck to their system.

“The biggest concern I have right now is we deviate from the game plan because we didn’t get the result,” Birkas said. “If we go into a playoff series in Cornwall and play that way seven games, we’ll win four games. This was anomaly. Playing this well and not getting the result was the anomaly.”

The Braves head to Ottawa on Saturday to take on the Jr. Senators.

Original story at Recorder.ca