BRANTFORD, ONT – The Brantford Titans returned to home ice on Thursday to play game two of three in a row against the Caledonia Corvairs. The Corvairs took the first meeting this past Saturday 6-3 which also snapped the Titans 9 game point streak. The Titans entered action on Thursday just two points ahead of Pelham for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and just 2 points behind Hamilton for seventh place.
The Titans would push the pace early looking to get on the board first as they had two grade A scoring chances but could not beat Corvairs goaltender Keegan Jackson. With Jackson keeping the game scoreless, his mates would get their legs moving approaching five minutes played in the first when Travis Houle would send one past Carter Vicente from the point to make it 1-0. Ethan Osborne would collect the only assist. Titans would get their first opportunity on the power play just over six minutes into the period and they would get a couple good looks but they could not beat Jackson. Kyle Henneberry would then get called for interference putting the Corvairs on the power play and with six seconds left in the man advantage, Evan Bradacs would poke it past Vicente to give Caledonia a 2-0 lead with 10:22 to play in the first. Each team would trade minor penalties in the ladder stages of the third period but no more goals were scored meaning that Caledonia would carry a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Shots on goal in the opening period favoured Caledonia 12-7.
Keegan Jackson continued to be stellar in the middle frame as the Titans would try to turn up the pressure a little bit but still could not solve the Corvairs goaltender. The Titans did have a breakaway opportunity as Kyle Henneberry came right out of the penalty box and went in the offensive zone all alone but he missed the net on the glove side. Corvairs would extend their lead in the middle frame as Brody Leet would fire a wrister top shelf on Vicente to make it 3-0. Drew Agnew and Philip Caridi would get the assists on the only goal in the middle frame. Shots after two periods favoured Caledonia 25-16.
In the third period, the penalty box door would get quite the workout as a combined 8 penalties were handed out with 7 of them going against Caledonia. One thing that didn’t change was the brick wall in the Caledonia net. The Titans had five power play opportunities in the third period but they could not beat Keegan Jackson who would end up making 29 saves for his first shutout of the season. Final score was 3-0 for Caledonia. Final shots favoured Caledonia as well 32-29.
These two teams will conclude their season series against one another on Sunday in Caledonia.
Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGX9vAGBOw8
