Clare wins close one at home

By Jonathan Riley

DIGBY COURIER

NovaNewsNow.com

The Valley Keith’s held their own tonight, losing by only a goal to the number one team in Nova Scotia Junior C hockey.

The Clare Lions barely squeaked by the Keith’s 3-2, thanks to a late-in-the-game goal from Marc Lombard.

“It’s just as I predicted,” said a smiling Francis Robichaud, general manager of the Clare Lions. “It’s going to be a very close series. I don’t think any of the games are going to be blowouts.”

The Lions pounced on a couple lucky bounces early and leapt ahead 2-0 only four minutes in.

Corey Deveau slapped the first goal into an empty net only 1:34 into the game. Valley goalie Chris Whitmore had left his crease to stop a break away but failed to properly clear the puck, and then was caught scrambling to get back.

“I just want to have that puck back on my stick,” said Whitmore after the game. “I was squeezing the stick too tight I guess, just overthinking it.”

Clare’s assistant captain Ryan Gallant made it 2-0 less than two minutes later. He stripped the puck off the Valley defence at the blue line and skated in alone to beat Whitmore under the pads.

Cody White got the Keith’s on the scoreboard late in the first, when he picked up a loose puck at centre and broke in alone on Clare’s Alain Savoie. 2-1 Clare after one.

White got a second on the night only 1:26 into the middle period. Whitmore made a couple of big saves to keep it at 2-2 to end the second.

“Whitmore had a hell of a game in nets,” said Keith’s coach Jim Verran. “It came down to just a bounce at the end.”

Whitmore stopped 35 of 38 while Savoie only faced 21, stopping 19.

White was close to making it a hat trick at 1:17 in the third. His hard wrist shot came through Savoie’s pads but bounced across the net instead of in. A minute later, Digby’s own Eric Cook barely missed putting the Keith’s ahead when his breakaway shot went just wide of the net.

The two teams battled it out through the third, entertaining the crowd with big hits and fast end-to-end hockey.

“We played with a lot more intensity than I have seen from them in a long time,” said Verran. “If we can build on that, and get used to playing with that kind of intensity, we’re going to be a much tougher hockey team.”

Lombard scored the game winner almost directly off a face off with only 3:47 left to play. Clare continued pressing after that forcing Whitmore to stand on his head time and again.

The Keith’s pulled Whitmore twice in the last minute. Final score Clare 3 – Keith’s 2.

The next game in the best-of-five series goes Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Digby arena.

“We know we can match them now,” said Verran. “If we give pound for pound, inch for inch, it should be a good game Sunday.”

Robichaud says his boys will have to pick it for game two.

“I think the Keith’s did a good job of bottling up our offence, although we did a great job of cycling the puck, but as far as shooting the puck goes, I think we’re gong to have to empty the tank on Sunday.”

The Universite Sainte Anne arena was sold out Friday night – max attendance is 350. Renovations now underway should increase the max attendance to 500, hopefully before next weekend’s game.

Kenny Walker, a proud Digby fan and father of Keith’s affiliate player Andrew Walker, took home the 50/50 of $320 .

Paul-Emile LeBlanc, a director with the Lions organization, estimates 200 or so Clare fans are planning to make the trip to Digby for Sunday’s game.