Carleton Place looks for repeat

Before the Carleton Place defeated the Pembroke Lumber Kings in five games to claim their second straight Central Canada Hockey League championship, they had a six-game series with the Cornwall Colts.

The Canadians won that series 4-2 finishing on April 5.

On Wednesday night, the Colts will play their first meaningful game since then as they open against Longueuil College Francais, at the Eastern Canadian junior championship they are hosting over the next five days. The winner gets to hoist the Fred Page Cup.

The Canadians will play their first game a few hours earlier against the Dieppe Commandos, winners of the Maritime Junior Hockey League’s Kent Cup.

The Canadians will be looking to become the first team to win consecutive titles in the 21 years of the event that pits a host team along with the winners of the Bogart Cup, Kent Cup and the NAPA Cup Champions of the Quebec Junior Hockey League to determine the Eastern Canada representative at the Royal Bank Cup national championship.

“All season long all we’ve really concentrated on is getting better in every 10-game segment,” Canadians coach Jason Clarke said.

“In the playoffs we got better every game. Our best hockey all year long was played against the Pembroke Lumber Kings. We don’t talk about wins or loses, we just talk about getting better and we believe there is still lots left in the tank for our guys to continue to improve and play better as a team.”

Colts coach Ian McInnis is excited to get back to games rather than the practice mode his team has been in over the last little while.

“They took a week off and they’ve been back at it for a good 16-17 days, so were in good shape. I think we’ll be all right,” said McInnis, adding that that break, while not too long, was certainly long enough.

“You never know, the first game after a layoff, what you’re going to get. Hopefully we’ll get better as it goes along and at a short event that’s what needs to happen.”

Clarke thinks his Carleton Place team has experience on its side. Having won consecutive league titles, a Fred Page Cup title and making an appearance in the national championship game in the past year, he may be right.

“I think we do have a little bit of an advantage,” Clarke said.

“There’s a lot of guys that (on the other teams) that have never played in the Fred Page Cup so I think the most experience in the tournament is us and Cornwall, so I think we have an advantage.”

The Colts were FPC champions in 2000 and runners up in 1995 and 2001. They are hosting for the second time.