Jr. Sens post victory in Fred Page opener

Carleton Place, meanwhile, frustrated in loss to College Francais de Longueuil

COLLEGE FRANCAIS 2, CANADIANS 1 JR. SENS 4, BLIZZARD 1

The Ottawa Jr. Senators opened the Fred Page Cup the same way they ended their Central Canada Hockey League season — with a win.

The Jr. Sens won the CCHL title in five games over the Carleton Place Canadians and Wednesday they opened the Eastern Canadian championship with a 4-1 win over the Maritime Hockey League champion Edmundston Blizzard.

The Canadians had lost the opening game of the day 2-1 to the Quebec league-champion College Francais de Longueuil in front of hundreds of screaming kids on School Day at the rink.

Carleton Place outshot College Francais 31-22 and had the majority of the opportunities, but could only put one puck past rookie netminder Philippe Savard-Masse.

“We just couldn’t score, but we were the better team,” Canadians coach Jason Clarke said.

“As a coaching staff, we’re very happy. Our 10 days of preparing really came to fruition. We were dominant, but their goaltender made some unbelievable saves. But that’s hockey, you’re not always going to win.”

The Canadians started strong, spending the opening minute entirely in the College Francais end and getting an early power play.

The best chance of that power play, however, went to Simon Gravel, who was stopped on a breakaway by Canadians netminder Michael Leach.

College Francais had the better of their chances while short-handed including another breakaway that was again stopped by Leach and a short-handed goal.

Vincent Chapleau opened the scoring while short-handed at 6:25 of the second period. After being stopped on the original breakaway, the ensuing traffic into the crease forced the puck into the net.

College Francais added a powerplay goal when Philippe Chapleau took a cross-ice pass from brother Vincent and fired the puck over a sprawling Beach at 11:54 of the second period.

“Every game is important and today we got a big win and the game (Thursday) will now give us an opportunity to secure a place in at least the semifinal,” said College Francais coach Pierre Petroni.

“Our goaltender was excellent from start to finish and we scored two big goals.”

In addition to allowing a shorthanded goal and several opportunities, the Canadians were 1-for-5 on the power play as Brett Thorne cut the lead to 2-1 at 5:38 of the third period, but they would get no closer despite a power play for the final two minutes of regulation and another 67 seconds playing six-onfour when they pulled Leach for an extra skater.

“Our power play wasn’t very good. We scored our only goal on the power play because we made a quick adjustment, but we had a hard time making adjustments in game and that’s something we have to address,” Clarke said.

In the second game, the Jr. Sens dominated in much the way the Canadians did, but came out with the better result. They were all over the Blizzard, but had just a 1-0 lead to show for their efforts after two periods despite a 24-12 advantage in shots.

Finn Evans scored seven seconds into a power play at 4:26 of the second period, but that was the only puck to get past Francis Asselin in the Edmundston goal through 40 minutes. He finished with 38 saves while Connor Hicks turned aside 16 shots in the Ottawa goal.

After Dany Coulombe tied the game for the Blizzard, Michael Thomas put the Jr. Sens on top again six seconds into a power play.

Pierre-Luc Veillette and Ethan Manderville finished things up with empty net goals.

College Francais and Edmundston will face off in the afternoon game Thursday, while Carleton Place and Ottawa will renew acquaintances Thursday night.