Eagles, Raiders Split Road Wins

Article by I. Schoonderbeek/Media by C. Archer

The Clarington Eagles and Napanee Raiders split road victories this week in games four and five of their East Conference Championship series. Clarington now leads the best-of-seven series three games to two.

After a tough overtime loss Sunday at home, the Eagles travelled to Napanee Wednesday evening short-staffed due to injury, suspension, and exam conflicts. The team dressed only five blueliners in the contest and utilized two call-ups to fill out the forward units.

Despite the challenges of filling out the lineup, Clarington jumped out to a first-period lead on goals by Adam Klaas and Kolby Poulin. The team held on the rest of the way for an eventual 2-1 win.

“Webby was our best player,” said head coach Dean Baumhauer. “Last night was probably the best game I’ve seen him play, and he’s been playing a lot of good games lately! The five guys on the back end were taxed, but they hung on and they all played well. They gave me everything they had. And up front we had a couple guys step up to get us going.”

Baumhauer’s crew had a quick turnaround before hosting the Raiders Thursday in the first elimination game of the series at Rickard Arena. The Eagles had to be feeling good about their chances, given their 3-1 series lead. But the series winner is typically the hardest win to come by in any round. “This Napanee team doesn’t quit,” said Baumhauer before the game. “This is going to be a tough one. They’re well coached and well prepared, so they’re going to give us everything they’ve got.”

The largest crowd of the season showed up in Bowmanville with the hope of seeing their hometown team capture its third consecutive Conference Championship on home ice. Instead, what they got was a rather lacklustre effort.

After an evenly played scoreless first period, Napanee jumped out to a 3-0 second-period lead. The Raiders took full advantage of Eagles turnovers, missed defensive zone coverages, and powerplay opportunities to create prime scoring opportunities against Oliver Webster in the Clarington goal. The Eagles, on the other hand, generated little in the way of offence.

Jude Rondina came on in relief of Webster to start the third period for his first game action in the series. But he didn’t receive much better support. Clarington finally got on the scoresheet three minutes into the third, but five minutes later, Napanee restored their three-goal cushion on a screened point shot. The Raiders would add an empty netter before heading home with a 5-1 win.

“We knew it was going to be a grind offensively. We needed to play penalty-free, and we couldn’t turn pucks over. But that’s exactly what we did,” said Baumhauer. ”We weren’t good enough. You’re not knocking a proud team like Napanee out with that kind of effort when they face elimination.”

“It’s funny how the game works,” Baumhauer continued. “We went up to Napanee with a limited roster and played our balls off, and tonight we get bodies back and we stink. That was an embarrassing effort quite frankly. There wasn’t one good player on the ice tonight. We hung Webby out to dry. The community came out to support us with the best crowd we’ve had all year and we disappointed them.”

The question now is which Eagles team will show up this coming Saturday night in Napanee for game six? They’ve been successful in the Strathcona Paper Centre this series, winning both games in Napanee so far.

“We’re still up 3-2,” said Baumhauer. “Are we going to lose three times in a row at home? Are they going to lose three times in a row at home? That’s the question. It’s going to be tough to go up there to their barn and beat them a third consecutive game. If we come back here for a game seven you would think there has got to be some pride in that dressing room. We’ve shown we can bounce back from losses all season. Now we have to reset and bounce back again on Saturday.”

Puck drop in Napanee on Saturday is 7:30 pm.

Other game notes: The award for best first intermission dance moves goes to Liam O’Dette! Who knew Liam was an Ace of Base fan?