Friday nights heartbreaking 3-2 shootout loss to Pembroke & Saturday night’s Rockland victory over Navan eliminated the Bears from playoff contention. The Bears played Rockland on Sunday night and came away with a 2-1 shootout win.
The 1st period was scoreless as the Nationals outshot the Bears 7-6.
Rockland scored the only goal of the 2nd period when Antoine Leblanc scored after just 19 seconds of play. The Bears were on their heels but rookie goalie Kyle Renaud stood tall in the net until his teammates could regain their composure. Rockland outshot Smiths Falls 12-8 in the middle stanza.
At 10:30 of the 3rd period while killing a penalty, veteran Bear Hunter Garlasco scored on a breakaway to tie the game 1-1. Garlasco’s 6th goal of the season was set up by Matthieu Franche & Ethan Coltart. Shots for the 3rd period were even at 10-10.
Rockland outshot Smiths Falls 3-2 during the 5 minute 3 on 3 overtime but nobody could solve Renaud or Rockland’s Sean Storr.
In the shootout, Rockland decided to go second in each round. Alex DiCarlo was unsuccessful as was Mathieu Blanchette. In the 2nd round Michael Larose scored while Renaud stopped Raphael Gosselin. The Bears Mithcell Larabie was stopped by Storr which left the Bears fate up to Renaud who stopped Jordan Power & preserved the Bears victory.
Larose was the game’s first star while Renaud was selected second star.
