Lucas Batt, Logan Buchanan, and Bryce Van Horn scored the goals, while Colton Point turned aside 20 shots as the Carleton Place Canadians defeated Pictou County Weeks Crushers 3-1 on Thursday afternoon to go 2-0 to begin the 2016 Fred Page Cup.
The Canadians got the scoring started on the powerplay late in the first period when Owen Grant sent a perfect tape-to-tape pass through traffic to an open Lucas Batt who had a yawning cage to fire the puck into.
In the second period, Carleton Place would be held without a goal as Pictou County goaltender Daniel Vautour made a number of desperation saves to keep his team in the game. The Crushers would end up tying things up mid-way through the period on the powerplay.
Early in the third and final period, Maxime St.Pierre would win a clean faceoff back to Logan Buchanan who would make no mistake and snipe his first of the tournament to give the Canadians a 2-1 lead.
From there, the Canadians would go into shutdown mode and not allow Pictou County to get anything going. At one point they were able to hold the Crushers without a shot for over 12 minutes.
With just over three minutes remaining, Bryce Van Horn would put the game away as he muscled his way to the front of the net and slid in his second of the tournament to make it a 3-1 game.
Brett Murray would take home Player of the Game honors for Carleton Place as he picked up an assist on the final goal by Van Horn and played a hard checking two-way game from start to finish.
Carleton Place will rest up tonight before getting right back into it tomorrow at 3PM ET as they square off against the QJHL champion College Francais de Longueuil.
