Penalty Trouble Costs Celtics Jr. C's

With a great first weekend on the books, your Celtics' hit the road bright and early Saturday morning to prepare for an afternoon clash with the Whitby Warriors Jr. C's, then finish with a Sunday tilt with the Clarington Shamrox.

Saturday, the team came out a flat, dealing with some bus legs and extra standing time at the arena, but had their fair share of chances to get on the board. With no luck, Whitby took a 3-0 lead before the Celtics were able to put a run together. Storming back in the 3rd period, the Celtics got almost level but could not get over the top, eventually losing 11-6. Tyler Akins and Ryan Thomas paced the offence scoring 3 goals and 2 goals respectively. Tristen Thompson was fantastic in the Celts' goal but the teams goal support was not able to assist much.

Sunday, the team traveled back up the 401 to the famous Garnet B. Rickard Center in Bowmanville, ON to face the reigning champion Clarington Shamrox. Ben Gagnier took the crease and made several key saves to battle through some ill-timed penalties. William Beauvais buried 3 goals, while Akins picked up 3 assists. Jimmy John Jacques Jr. was fantastic in his rookie debut throughout the weekend, along with his rookie counterparts, Sam Gaudreau, Kolten Oakes-Cook, Taran Fiacco, Justin Boots and Ryan Vipond. The team would come close to tying the game at 8, late in the third, but again, emotion spilled over where the team took various devastating penalties. The Shamrox would pull out a 12-7 win to send the boys home.

"We know we can play with Clarington, we proved that to ourselves today." Said coach Mike Dube. "We spoke about emotion and the need we have to control ourselves better." The team has amassed an astounding 293 penalty minutes over their first 4 games played.

"We love seeing that our guys want to protect each other. We take pride in our team toughness but, obviously, we will need to be more disciplined if we intend on prolonging our season into a playoff run."

The team will be at home this coming weekend when they face off against last year's playoff foe; Huntsville Hawks, Saturday at 7:30pm and then against the Barrie Bombers Sunday afternoon at 2pm.