Brockville, Pembroke will be the teams to beat in CJHL playoffs
Posted Mar 4, 2010 By Jeff Maguire
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Tweet ThisEMC Sports - The long Central Junior Hockey League (CJHL) regular season wraps up Sunday and just as they were when the campaign opened in early September, two teams are favoured to go head-to-head for the Art Bogart Cup beginning in early April.
Three-time defending champion Pembroke Lumber Kings and Brockville Braves have fought a neck-and-neck battle for the overall league lead for almost the entire season. Going into the final week of action in the Junior A campaign it was a toss-up who would finish first overall. Pembroke eased past Kemptville 73's 5-2 Sunday to regain the overall lead with 103 points. But the Braves are just one behind and they also own a game in hand. Wins in their final two games against Kemptville and Gloucester this weekend will give Brockville the regular season pennant.
Lumber Kings, perennial winners in the now 12-team circuit, have had another tremendous campaign compiling a stellar 51-9-2 record as of Monday.
Pembroke has the top two scorers in the league. Runaway CJHL leader Damian Cross upped his totals to an incredible 138 points last weekend including a league-leading 85 assists. Teammate Tyler Tosunian has 111 points including 73 helpers.
Centre Kyle Just, an Arnprior native, is third in team scoring and ninth overall with 87 points including 54 assists.
Coach and general manager Sheldon Keefe attempted to strengthen the club with some trade deadline moves. The arrival of left winger Ahmed Mahfouz, acquired in a deal with Nepean Raiders, has helped. He has three goals and seven assists in 19 games.
However, Keefe's swoop for winger Jonathan Milley, who led Smiths Falls Bears with 13 goals and 29 assists at the Jan. 10 junior hockey trade deadline, backfired. Milley suffered a shoulder injury in the 'Battle of Ontario All Star Challenge' which, ironically, was played in Pembroke on Jan. 2. He hasn't played a game for Lumber Kings since the trade and his playoff status remains uncertain.
Right winger Mitchell Gallant, picked up in a trade deadline deal with Cumberland Grads, has done very little scoring in his 13 games for the club, netting twice and setting up another.
The Pembroke blueline is anchored by team captain Ben Reinhardt, an Arnprior native, along with high scoring defencemen Daniel Sauve and Stephen Farrell who were both dealt to Lumber Kings by Cumberland.
The club is backstopped by goalie Scott Zacharias. The Winnipeg native has the best goals against average (GAA) in the league with a solid 2.35 mark and he owns a sparkling 32-4 record heading into the final week of the campaign.
Brockville, which is coached, managed and owned by former National Hockey League (NHL) star defenceman Todd Gill (Toronto Maple Leafs), will be in the Eastern Canadian Junior A championship tournament no matter how they do in the CJHL playoffs. Braves host the Fred Page Cup competition April 21-25.
They won't be "just the host team" however as Gill has built a formidable squad in anticipation of the tournament and in hopes of first winning the CJHL championship.
Brockville set the league record for consecutive wins this season with 26. The incredible streak began Oct. 30, 2009 and ended with a shootout loss in Pembroke Jan. 17. The club's previous defeat was a 3-2 overtime decision on home ice against expansion Carleton Place Canadians on Oct. 27, 2009.
Brockville's offence is led by veteran forwards Shayne Stockton, Shayne Thompson, Mark Williamson and Scott Arnold. On defence Braves are Sebastien Gingras who is the second highest scoring blueliner in the league with 53 points including 41 assists.
Gill also came up with the steal of the trade deadline when he secured disgruntled defenceman Scott Dawson from Nepean Raiders. In Brockville Dawson has found new life scoring two goals and adding nine assists in 18 games.
They also acquired defenceman Nathan Livingstone in a trade with Smiths Falls and he has added more stability to an already strong blueline.
In goal Brockville is very strong with veteran Clarke Saunders carrying the load. Saunders has the second best GAA (2.38) and overall record (29-8) in the league.
If the favourites do eventually clash in the Bogart Cup final there is very little to choose between them. In five regular season meetings Braves won three games and Lumber Kings two.
Whoever finishes first will face Kemptville 73's who wrapped up their first playoff spot Feb. 19. A late season spurt saw 73's overtake and pass expansion Carleton Place to claim their first-ever post season berth.
Going into the final week Canadians had a 24-34-1-1 mark and 50 points.
Cornwall Colts, who started very strongly this season before leveling off before Christmas, will finish a strong third in the league and will meet the sixth seed in the opening round. As of Monday it appeared that would be either Ottawa or Nepean who are currently in a battle for fifth and sixth place overall.
Colts' offence is paced by league goal scoring leader Jacob Laliberte.
Cumberland, who made more moves than anyone at the trade deadline as they plan for next season, sent their leading scorer Mathieu Ouellette to Cornwall.
Cornwall was greatly strengthened this year with the addition of twin brothers Tyson and Tylor Spink.
Defenceman Chris Mason is also a major cog in the offensive wheel and Colts' blueline also features Guy Leboeuf and sophomore Kevin Landry who, after playing in Cornwall last season, was lost to Carleton Place in the expansion draft. He was returned to Colts in an October trade after playing just eight games for the new Canadians.
Mainstay net minder Doug Carr has the third best statistics among league goaltenders with a 2.46 GAA and 26-9 record.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in the CJHL this season has been Gloucester Rangers. The Orleans-based club wrapped up second place in the competitive Yzerman Division with a 6-2 win over Smiths Falls last Tuesday (Feb. 23). They will also be the fourth seed in the playoffs meaning Gloucester will have home ice advantage in their opening round set against the fifth seed.
After just squeezing into the playoffs last season and then failing to win a game against Nepean (Raiders claimed three of the four games in overtime), Rangers have undergone a huge revival under the tutelage of head coach Rick Dorval. General manager and team owner Paul Jennings, who until two years ago owned, coached and managed the Junior B Stittsville Royals, has also played a huge role in Rangers' rise.
The team is led by veteran centre Andrew Creppin who was fourth in the league in scoring Monday with 102 points including 50 assists. Team captain Stephen Blunden, veteran right winger Nick Vidoni and former Stittsville Junior B star Michael Webley are also key offensive threats.
Jennings engineered perhaps the best trade deadline deal when he acquired 20-year-old centre Samuel Coyne from Carleton Place in exchange for veteran goalie Francis Dupuis. Coyne, a Perth native, has been a huge addition scoring 10 goals and assisting on five markers in 13 games.
On defence Sean Blunden is the leading scorer among CJHL defencemen with 54 points including 36 assists. Peter Mott and Mitchell Fournier are important blueline players with Morgan Hudson taking the No. 1 goalie mantle following Dupuis' departure.
The other four playoff teams are Ottawa, Nepean and Cumberland, all from the Yzerman Division, along with Robinson Division Kemptville.
Raiders went through major trauma just before Christmas when the entire bench staff, led by head coach Garry Galley the former NHL star defenceman, resigned following a dispute with the team owner.
Under the direction of new coach Peter Goulet and his assistant Dean Dorsey (the former Canadian Football League place kicker) Nepean has pressed forward.
Raiders are led by veteran centre Andrew Calof, who is tied for sixth in league scoring with 91 points, and right winger Corey Domenico. With Dawson moved to Brockville the Nepean blueline features mainstays Brandon Boelter, Zachary Sternberg and Zachary Carriveau.
Galley's son Wyatt was the team's No. 1 goalie and he asked for and received his release. He is now playing in the British Columbia Junior A Hockey League.
Michel Kowalew, Stittsville native Joel Grills (formerly of Junior B Arnprior Packers) and affiliated player Matt McCaughan, who starred for Junior B Stittsville this season, are now splitting the net minding load for Raiders.
Junior Senators feature forwards Maxime Pilon, Nicholas Belleville, Andrew Newell and Matt White. Right winger Joel Senecal, who was picked up from last place Hawkesbury Hawks at the trade deadline, has been a fine addition to the Ottawa offence.
The defence is anchored by Patrick Harrison who was also acquired from Hawkesbury early in the campaign along with David Walters and Maxime Villeneuve-Menard. Sens have a good 1-2 goaltending punch in the persons of Niels-Erik Ravn, a native of Provence, France and Dean Shepherdson.
Playoff upstarts Kemptville have received strong coaching from Chris Droeske on their way to a much improved campaign. Offensively the club is anchored by sophomore left winger Michael Rowbotham of Stittsville and forward Zach Wilson, an Almonte native.
Defencemen Jacob Clark and Ryan Delorme are both strong contributors on offence as well with goalie Ben Curley fifth in GAA despite having played more games than any other league net minder.
Carleton Place will finish ninth in their first campaign, just out of the playoffs. The other non-playoff sides in order of finish are Smiths Falls, Kanata and Hawkesbury.
The playoff format sees the top eight teams enter the quarter finals with the survivors facing off in the semi finals. The semi final winner with the best regular season mark will have home ice advantage in the CJHL championship series. Visit the website: www.centraljuniorhockeyleague.ca for more information.
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