Navan Grads knock off Rockland Nationals in four, advance to CCHL finals
The Navan Grads have advanced to the championship round of the CCHL playoffs for the first time in franchise history after beating the Rockland Nationals 1-0 in Game 4 of the semi-finals on Sunday.
The Grads were playing on home ice after taking a 3-1 series lead in Rockland on Friday. Playing in front of a full house at the Navan Memorial Arena, the Grads and Nats kept each other in check for the entire first period and most of the second.
The Nats had the only power play opportunity of the first period, but they could not cash in as the Grads’ were able to keep them at bay.
The Grads’ first real scoring opportunity of game came at the 9:09 mark of the second period when Colin MacDougall was set up in close on a great lead pass from Sebbie Johnson, but Nats’ goalie Benoit Forget was able to turn the chance aside with his right pad. The play did result in a slashing penalty against Rockland’s Owen Brady and the Grads first power play of the game.
What result was not, not two, but three excellent scoring opportunities, all of which were rejected by Forget, who was single-handedly keeping his team in the game.
He would make two more great saves later in the period. The first on a short-handed opportunity by Cristobal Tola with 8:38 left in the period and the second off Sebbie Johnson who was fed a pass from Devon Savignac as he was coming out of the penalty box.
Despite all the chances, the game was still tied at the end of the second period thanks to Forget’s goaltending heroics and the Nats’ tenacious back-checking.
The Grads finally broke the deadlock early in the third period when Tola deflected a shot from Nathan Hargest up and over Forget’s left shoulder and into the top of the net.
Navan came close to extending their lead midway through the period on a pair of short-handed opportunities by Kiki Brown, but Forget came up big once again in the Nationals’ net.
The Grads kept the Nats in check for the remainder of the game including the last minute and a half when Forget went to the bench in favour of an extra attacker.
As the final second ticked off the clock, the Grads cleared the bench to mob their goalie Jaeden Nelson who earned first star honours for posting his second shutout of the series.
Forget was named the game’s second star, but it could just of easily gone to the Grads’ penalty killing unit who killed off five penalties and had multiple scoring chances.
With the win, the Grads can now prepare for the Bogart Cup finals and a showdown with the Smith Falls Bears who finished second in the regular season standings, 11 points behind Navan. The farthest the Grads have gone in the playoffs prior to this year was in 2002-2003 when they made it to the semi-finals before losing to the Ottawa Jr. Senators.
Although the final round schedue hadn’t been released prior to this story being posted, Game 1 could happen as soon as this Tuesday.
To find out more visit www.thecchl.ca/stats/schedule.
