Celts' Remain Undefeated in Cornwall

The Cornwall Celtics' Jr. C's successfully stretched their home winning streak while managing 4pts over the weekend enduring two games that could be called anything but easy. An ugly win on Saturday against the visiting Huntsville Hawks teamed with a 'Mother's day miracle' on Sunday against a much improved Barrie Bombers squad fuelled the Celts' to take over the leader board in the Eastern Conference - for the time being.

Saturday, the Huntsville Hawks stormed the Benson center with a new coaching staff and missing some key names from last years playoff foe but still managed to play hard and gain respect from the Celtics'. The Celts' jumped out to a 6-1 lead before letting their foot off the gas and allowing Huntsville to battle their way into a contest. Tyler Akins paced the offence with 3 goals and 7 points on the night, while rookie Sam Gaudreau buried 2 goals. William Beauvais continued his torrid goal scoring pace with 4 on the evening, while newcomer Bryce Drew had a goal and 3 points to emphasize his return from the Jr. B ranks. A 14-9 final score was the result.

Sunday, Barrie came to town after defeating the Gloucester Griffins the night prior. Barrie was prepared to play and jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the guys in green took 2 fast break opportunities to cut the lead going into the first intermission. The Celtics' seemingly battled for every inch they got and were able to tie the game 8-8 and take the game to overtime. The turning point came half way through the 3rd frame when goaltender Ben Gagnier made two routine saves, losing his stick and the rebound on the second, but never quit and made a dramatic diving arm save to keep the score knotted. Beauvais had a huge finish to the game with 3 goals in the last 15 minutes of the game, including a penalty shot beauty in overtime. Transition specialist Aodin MacDonell had 2 goals and 3 points in the affair before Sam Fontaine scored the go ahead goal 4 minutes into overtime to give the Celts' their first lead of the night. The team never looked back en route to a 10-8 OT win. Brendan Vipond was the unsung hero through the game who made many huge plays down the stretch that didn't show up on the score sheet.

"Both games this weekend we were able to keep our penalty minutes to a minimum - it shows maturity and understanding from the players." Assessed coach Dube. "We asked the guys to stay on the edge and not over it emotionally and they answered the task."

The team will now see 2 games against a Gloucester team that is much improved from their spot in the standings last year.

"We need to be ready to go." Asserted the teams defensive coach Joel Marleau. "Obviously their has been some added parity to the league, Huntsville and Barrie were both competitive and we don't see Gloucester being anything less than hungry for 2 points."

The Celtics' will next see Gloucester at Brian Kilrea Arena in the nations capital, Thursday at 7:30pm. The May long weekend sees the team with some time off before returning home against the same Griffins next Thursday.