With a two man powerplay and the net empty, the Kanata Stallions were throwing the puck at the net as much as they could during the dying seconds of the game on Sunday afternoon, unable to put a final goal past Cumberland's Pat Martin. When the horn sounded, his defenseman Kevin Lough gave him a nod of the head, relieved that they had survived and picked up the valuable two points.
The game set out to a quick pace as the teams were tied at 2 after the first four minutes of play. While it slowed down, the game was tied 3-3 after the first period. During the second, the Grads brought their firepower getting 24 shots on net as Daniel Walsh and Matt Allan put goals up on the board. Daniel, whose brother Fabian was recently traded from the Grads to the Stallions, finished the game with two goals and was named the second star. The Grads led 4-3 going into the final frame.
In the third, Kanata killed off a couple of penalties before charging back as the time ticked down. While they managed to get a powerplay marker up, they were not able to get the final tally to send the game to overtime.
The win was important for the Grads who are chasing both the Stallions and the Smiths Falls Bears for the final playoff spot. They now stand only four points behind the Stallions and six behind the Bears, who lost on Sunday, for the league's eighth seed with a month and a half remaining in the season.
Rangers close the gap
While the Gloucester Rangers might not be in as close contention for a playoff spot, they have been improving drastically over the past month or two and are now a threat to play spoiler against the CCHL's top clubs.
On Sunday, they were downed 6-4 by the Nepean Raiders, the ninth best team in Canada, but kept it close as captain Michael McMurtry kept on his incredible scoring pace. With his goal and assist, he now has nine points in the past five games bringing his total to 57 points this year surpassing last year's total. He is ninth in league scoring.
As a whole, the Rangers have improved, taking the league's second best team, the Carleton Place Canadians, to a shootout last week and beating the tough Cornwall Colts at the start of the year.
Rookie Daniele Disipio scored twice to give him nine goals on the year to go along with five assists. Fellow rookie and teammate Alexandre Boivin has 12 goals and 22 assists meaning the future looks bright for the Gloucester Rangers.
Both teams return to action this week as Cumberland visits Carleton Place on Friday night while Gloucester will be in Hawkesbury to take on the Hawks.
