CJHL Hockey
Grads earn split during pair of weekend road games
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

The Cumberland Grads remain in fourth place in the CJHL's overall standings after splitting a pair of weekend road games against the Hawkesbury Hawks and the Pembroke Lumber Kings.

The Grads traveled Hawkesbury to take on the Hawks on Friday night and came away with a well-earned 5-3 win thanks to a three point effort by Greg Sartoretto.

After Hawkesbury opened the scoring with a power play goal at the 10:58 mark of the first period, the Grads answered back with a pair of goals by Mitch Gallant and Daniel Goyette in the final three minutes to take a 2-1 lead into the break.

The Hawks tied the score with their second power play goal of the game at the 2:17 mark of the second period.

The deadlock didn't last long, however. A little over a minute later, Mathieu Ouellette set up Sartoretto to put the Grads back in front and then Sartoretto helped set up Michael Borkowski midway through the period to give the Grads a two goal lead.

Jason McCarthy's power play goal just 32 seconds into the third stanza would give the Grads some breathing room, which they would end up needing after Yannick Laliberte scored a shorthanded goal to narrow the Hawks' lead to 5-3.

Adam Laderoute took care of things the rest of the way for the Grads, stopping 31 shots to pick up his 13th win of the season.

After traveling to Hawkesbury on Friday night, the Grads headed to the other end of the Ottawa Valley on Sunday to take on the league leading Pembroke Lumber Kings who were determined not to allow a repeat of what happened the last time Cumberland came to town when they suffered only their second home loss of the season.

Since that fateful day on Nov. 6, the Lumber Kings had won eight in a row including a 2-0 shutout of the Smiths Falls Bears on Friday.

The Grads obviously had their work cut out for themselves. Beating the Lumber Kings at home is one thing, beating them at home twice in the same month is another thing entirely.

With the odds clearly against them, the Grads managed to hold their own for the better part of two and half periods and except for an unfortunate goal with three seconds left in the opening stanza, the kept Pembroke's potent lineup pretty much in check.

Brendan Gagnon's second goal of the game with 5:53 left in the third period would give the Lumber Kings a 3-0 lead. They would make it 4-0 on a Kyle Just goal with 1:04 left in the game.

Despite the outcome, the Grads managed to limit the Lumber Kings to just 29 shots, which is an accomplishment in itself.

The Grads will be hoping for a different result when they host the Lumber Kings on Tuesday night at the Navan Memorial Arena. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Cumberland currently sits in fourth place in the overall standings. Although they are a full 10 points behind the third place Brockville Braves, they are being hard-pressed by a handful of teams who are all within striking distance, including the Nepean Raiders who are two points back of the Grads with three games in hand.

(Posted 6:30 p.m., Nov. 30)

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