Dustin Russell had a goal and an assist as the Clarenville Caribous put an end to their three-game losing streak, defeating the Eastlink CeeBees Stars 4-2 at the Clarenville Events Centre Saturday night.
The CeeBees struck first blood in the opening frame with Steven Greeley shoving the puck past Caribous starting goaltender Jason Churchill at 9:40.
Less than two minutes later, Jordon Smith found the back of the net from the point, for his first goal of the season to knot the game at one.
The Caribous jumped out to a quick 3-1 just midway through the second period, thanks to goals from captain Russell at 5:37 and Andrew Sweetland, on the breakaway, at 11:04.
The Caribous came out flat in the third period and the CeeBees were able to capitalize. Mike Dyke pulled off an impressive deke and found the net behind Churchill at 10:31 to make for a close finish.
Brad Crann put the game out of reach with less than two minutes left in the game as he finished off a nice passing play from Russell and Mark Roebothan.
The Caribous would add an empty-netter but the goal was called off because the net was off its pegs.
The Caribous played a great defensive game in front of netminder Churchill, who stopped 38 of the 40 shots he faced. Even though Clarenville allowed 40 shots, the Caribous defense was able to keep the majority of those shots from the perimeter.
Assistant coach Todd Brett was pleased with his team’s effort against a tough CeeBees team.
“I thought the team played well,” said Brett.
“I thought the CeeBees played well too but I thought we held the edge for most of the game. One of the differences tonight was then has ten forwards and we had twelve and we rolled four full lines all night.”
Tonight marked the debut of Clarenville’s newest import, Jordan Foreman and Brett believes he did well considering it was his first game in a new league.
Sometimes you feel bad for a guy who gets dragged here from Ontario on a plane and you throw him right into the mix and he doesn’t know his linemates. I didn’t think he played a bad game at all. It was obvious that he knows how to play the game.
The Caribous will try to make it two wins in a row tomorrow afternoon as they face the CeeBees again at 1:30pm at the Clarenville Events Centre.
