Eagles “Edge” Chiefs

Article by I. Schoonderbeek

The Clarington Eagles picked up right where they left off Thursday evening at Garnet B. Rickard Recreation Complex. It had been nine days since they swept the North Kawartha Knights in round one of the PJHL playoffs.

The long break may have slowed the Eagles down in the first period of game one of their second round series against the Lakefield Chiefs. But they found their wings by the second and soared to a 5-0 victory in front of a season high hometown crowd.

Clarington’s new mascot, Edge the Eagle, made his debut on sponsor appreciation night. Edge seemed to be popular with the crowd, with many seeking out the sharp looking bird in the stands for photos.

The Chiefs did a good job stifling the Eagles’ attack through the first 20 minutes of the contest. They limited the Clarington shooters to nine shots on goal, none of which could really be considered great scoring opportunities. The teams headed to their respective dressing rooms scoreless for the first intermission.

The Eagles broke the deadlock six minutes into the second period on the powerplay. Adam Klaas tipped in a Kyle Shepherd point shot on the play for his fifth goal of the post-season.

Clarington made it 2-0 at the 13-minute mark when Leyton Aitken batted a centring passing out of the air from the top of the Lakefield crease. Hayes Bell and Jordan Shaw drew assists on the play.

The Chiefs best opportunity to get back in the game came shortly after the Aitken goal. With the Eagles already on the penalty kill, defenseman Ryan Hall was whistled for slashing, creating a 1:32 long five-on-three advantage for Lakefield. The Clarington penalty kill proved to be up to the task, getting in front of shots and keeping the Lakefield shooters to the outside. Eagles starter Oliver Webster was there to swallow up any pucks that found their way to the net.

A Lakefield penalty at the end of the second period set Clarington up to put the game out of reach early in the third. The Eagles took full advantage of the opportunity. Mitch Davies took a pass from Cole Williamson 1:27 into the frame and was able to walk in to the top of the faceoff circle before snapping a shot high over the goaltender’s blocker.

The Eagles would add another powerplay marker seven minutes into the period when Davies found Kolby Poulin for a cross ice one timer.

Davies would add his second of the game at the ten-minute mark, to cap off the scoring.

Webster made 19 saves in goal for his third shutout of the playoffs. He has yet to surrender a goal in his three post-season starts. “Webby did a great job when called upon, especially during the five-on-three,” said head coach Dean Baumhauer. “He was lights out!”

Baumhauer was pleased with his club’s performance after their long break between games. “Good way to start the series. You’ve got to get game one,” said Dean. “Both teams had a little bit of a layoff. That first period was a little rough, but as the game progressed, we started to wear them down. We’re deeper, and we started playing the right way.”

Going into the contest, Lakefield had only surrendered three goals in their first-round sweep against Port Perry. “Our guys put a lot of pucks and traffic in front of their tendy,” said Dean. “He’s a good goalie, but when a guy can’t see the puck it’s hard to make saves. Everybody contributed today. We rolled our lines and our back end played great. Matheson and Schoonderbeek got a ton of ice against their top unit and did a great job.”

Despite the victory, Baumhauer expressed some concerns about his team’s discipline after the game. “We’re still taking some penalties that we shouldn’t be taking. We had two or three ‘O’ zone calls, a yapping penalty, a penalty when we’re already down a man and there’s no-one else in the area. That’s how we’ll lose if they beat us…we’ll end up beating ourselves.”

Baumhauer expects the rest of the series to be a grind. “It’s not going to get any easier. They’ll bounce back. They’re a good team and they’re well coached. We’re playing in a small barn on Saturday, so it’s going to be a different game.”

Captain Mitch Davies carried over his strong play from the Eagles’ first round, putting up three points on the scoresheet and providing his usual hard-nosed game. “Coming from a week off, we were definitely a little slow coming out of the gate tonight,” said Davies. “Once Dean gave us a good “pep talk” during the first intermission, the boys got back to the program. We played our game, and it showed on the scoreboard.”

Davies stressed the importance of starting the series against Lakefield off the right way after easily dispatching North Kawartha in round one. “They made a lot of additions at the deadline, and they were coming in hot after winning seven straight coming into this game. For us to be able to shut that down with another shutout from Webby and hand them a 5-0 thumping really sends a message to start the series. We’re ready to go!”

The teams face off for game two Saturday night at the Lakefield Smith Community Centre at 7:25 pm. Then return to Clarington Monday night for game three at 7:55 pm.