CJHL Hockey
New look Grads come close to knocking off first place Braves
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online

A revamped Cumberland Grads team came within a goal of knocking off the league-leading Brockville Braves on Friday night, just days after trading their top two scorers for a bevy of draft picks at the CJHL trade deadline.

The team's leading scorer Mathieu Ouellette was dealt to the Cornwall Colts for defenceman Ian Lavigne and a first round draft pick in each of 2010 and 2012, while Mitch Gallant was traded to the Pembroke Lumber Kings for a second and third round draft pick in 2011 and a first round selection in 2012.

Just prior to the Gallant deal, the Grads were involved in a three-way swap with the Lumber Kings and the Hawkesbury Hawks that saw recently acquired defenceman Stephen Farrell sent to Pembroke in exchange for Hawks' defencemen Sebastien Dubus and Jonathan Burroughs and Hawkesburys' fourth round draft pick in the 2012 draft.

The Hawks received Jeremy Melbye and Craig Myeroff from the Lumber Kings in the deal along with the first round pick Pembroke's first round pick in 2010.

All three former members of the Grads were informed of their fate shortly after the teams 9-0 drubbing of the Hawks last Sunday.

Playing in his last season in the CJHL as an overager, Ouellette had asked to be traded to either Pembroke, Brockville or Cornwall in the hope of winning a championship. His preference, however, was Cornwall where his close friend Jakob Laliberte is the team captain.

Grads' coach Paul Flindall told Ouellette during the summer that if Ouellette wanted to be traded to a contender at the deadline he would try and grant his request.

When word spread that Ouellette was on the move, then Gallant, who is heading off to university next year, asked to be traded to a contender as well.

The Stephen Farrell deal was a by-product of the trade discussions between the Grads and the Lumber Kings over Gallant.

Ouellette was acquired by the Grads from Hawkesbury midway through the 2008-2009 season. In 68 games with the Grads, he scored 29 goals and added 44 assists. Before he was traded he led the team in goals and points with 20 and 48 respectively.

Mitch Gallant joined the Grads around the same time Ouellette did. In 69 games with the Grads, the former Nepean Raider scored 28 goals and added 33 points. Prior to being traded he had scored 18 goals and 23 assists in 42 games.

Stephen Farrell was acquired from the Lumber Kings in December. In 13 games with the Grads he had one goal and nine assists.

In Dubus and Burroughs, the Grads are picking up two experienced defenceman. Burroughs had five goals and 14 assists playing for the last place Hawks, while Dubus is more of a steady stay at home defencman.

Lavigne is currently playing Jr. B hockey in Casselman. After playing a season in Hawkesbury where he was one of their top four defenceman last year, he was traded to the Cornwall Colts. But because he's enrolled in the elite athlete program at Louis Riel high school, he decided to play closer to home in Casselman while Cornwall tried to trade his rights to an Ottawa-area team.

The two former Hawks were both in the Grads lineup when they visited the Brockville Braves Friday night. After spotting the Braves a 2-0 first period lead, the Grads narrowed the deficit to 2-1 in the second on a goal by Michael Borkowski. Unfortunately, they could not come up with the equalizer in the third period and the game ended with the same 2-1 score.

The first two stars of the game were hand to the starting goalies who put on a clinic in front of the Brockville fans. Braves' netminder Clarke Saunders earned first star honours having stopped 29 of 30 shots in picking up the win, and Grads' goalie Adam Mohr picked up the second star for stopping 24 of 26 shots.

The two goals the Grads gave up were the least amount of goals the Braves have scored in a game since Oct. 27 when they lost 3-2 to the Carleton Place Canadians. Prior to Friday's game, the Braves had scored an average of 6.5 goals per game.

The Grads will be looking to get back on the winning track when they host the Ottawa Jr. Senators this afternoon at 3 p.m.

(Posted 1:30 p.m., Jan. 17)

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