by G.J. the sportsguy
It has been five decades since the Kemptville 73’s were conceived as the Kemptville Comets in 1969 and then the change in 1973 taking the year “73’s” as their new name with the support from Ken Seymour, John “Doc” Henry, Bruce Cathcart, Forrest Christie, Keith Forbes, Wayne Pratt, Gerald Tallman, Alf Taylor, Don Valcour, and Ted Warren; they are still going strong after moving up a level from Jr. B to Junior A in 2007. A special Friday evening opener puck drop was held to celebrate the 50 year legacy with the alumni of the 73’s, Dave Valcour (1971 – 1975), Doug “Torchy” Barnett (1972 – 1976), Doug Rigby (1979 – 1983) as well as Head Coach (1990 / 1991), and then GM (2001 – 2004), AGM (2013 – 2017), Brent “Slabbie” Evans (1979 – 1984) and Andy Pinhey (1980 – 1984).
After resounding applause from the 475 hockey fans, the Kemptville 73’s challenged the Nepean Raiders to walk away with a 2 to 1 victory.
Initial frame saw end to end fast and furious excitement as the 73’s spend the majority of their time in the opposition zone with results from a PP when Loretto dug it out of the trenches to Fennell to find Grady Logue PPG in the slot to pull the trigger past John Gedraidis at 19:58 close out after twenty minutes.
Second stanza with Kemptville flooding their opposition without success to end the battle scoreless.
Last twenty with Nepean man advantage from Curtiss Sturgeon PPG with helpers by McGurn and Sinani to squeeze it through Jacob Biron at :33 to even it up at one to force OT to determine winner.
Within the first half minute, the magic of Thomas quarterbacking the attack to Whyte gliding across the umbrella to Grady Logue in the rocking chair for his second and the winning goal at :20.
Kemptville outgunned their adversary by 39 to 27 with 1/2 PP and Nepean with ¼ PP.
The Coach was extremely pleased with the solid three zone game and confident that as the team buys into it, the system will show continued growth as the lines get comfortable with each other moving forward.
Sunday matinee was a bad scene with hungry Bears of Smiths Falls munching on the spoils of the Kemptville 73’s as they prowled and feasted with a 4 to zip slaughter.
It was a stopper clinic as Jacob Biron for Kemptville faced rubber with 18 to 7 to keep the frame scoreless.
The wheels came off for the 73’s in the second as the Bears struck with four unanswered markers as they plummeted their prey with a 19 to 5 shot count and found a way to get behind Kemptville’s D.
Martin – Gaudreault with McIntosh to Matthew Dimaline jamming the blue paint at 1:23. Alex McIntosh from Wasmer with Martin – Gaudreault swarmed Jacob Biron at 1:30. At 3:54, Trevor Faucher with assists from Wasmer and Hails. Trevor Faucher posted his second goal with helpers from Stevenson and Lumsden at 4:14.
Final twenty remained scoreless as the punishment continued on Kemptville whenever they touched the puck and the four point deficit was too much to claw back from as Smiths Falls rifled rubber at Jacob Biron yet again.
Smiths Falls hammered Kemptville 50 to 17 with both squads having 0/2 PP.
Hawkesbury Hawks will land in the 73’s barn on Wednesday for a 7 pm evening battle and then face the Ottawa Junior Senators for another home session at 7:30 pm on Friday.
Hockey with EDGE…see you around the boards.
