BRANTFORD, ONTARIO – The Brantford Titans returned to home ice on Thursday, looking to win their second straight game after defeating Welland on Sunday 5-2. As for Caledonia, they fell to Hamilton last time out. The score in that game was 3-2. This would begin a stretch of 4 home games in the next 5 for the Titans while Caledonia began a stretch of 4 road games in their next 6. Cohen Lesperance-Spack made his Titans debut between the pipes on Thursday while the Corvairs countered with Maverick Fletcher.
It would be a very spirited opening period between the two clubs. There was 44 minutes in penalties handed out in the opening period including three ten minute misconducts. One of those was handed out to Tyler Clark of the Corvairs who checked Tristan Hill into the boards from behind, resulting in Clark receiving twelve minutes in penalties. On the ensuing power play. Gavin Christie would send one in from the point and Adam Stipan would get a stick on it to get it past Fletcher to give the Titans a 1-0 lead. Matteo Gauthier would collect the secondary assist on Stipan’s sixth of the season. With 1:52 to go in the first, Ethan Arrojado would get called for tripping and Corvairs would make him pay. Carson Littlejohn sent one in from the point and it would get past a screened Lesperance-Spack to make it 1-1. Ethan Quick collected the lone assist. It would remain tied into the first intermission. Titans led in the shot department 20-16 after one.
In the second period, the Titans would come out flying. They would fire everything but the kitchen sink at Maverick Fletcher but they could not beat the Corvair goaltender. That is until the 7:13 mark of the period. Matthew Aoun would be left all alone at the side of the cage and Joey Kapel would put the puck right on his tape and number 9 in white would make no mistake. Aoun’s 2nd goal of the year would put the Titans back in front by one goal. Joey Kapel and Tyson Papple assisted on the goal. The Titans would then get called for three straight minor penalties, putting the Corvairs in a position to tie the game but it would be the newcomer Lesperance-Spack denying the Corvairs every chance he got. That would allow the Titans to kill off all three penalties and eventually work their way to a power play of their own. Quiton Kim-Lemay would try and shot pass to Adam Stipan and the Titans captain got enough on the deflection to get it past Fletcher to extend the Titans lead to 3-1. Kim-Lemay and Christie assisted on Stipan’s second of the game. Corvairs would quickly answer though. A scramble in front of the net resulted in Quick moving in undetected and being wide open for a pass in front of the crease to make it 3-2 with 39 seconds to go in the period. The score after forty minutes would be 3-2 for the Brantford Titans. Shots after forty favoured Brantford 34-30.
The third period would start the same as the second. Titans controlled the pace of play as they tried to regain the two goal lead after giving up a late goal in the second period. It would take all of 4:07 for the Titans to restore the two goal lead. Joey Kapel would pot his fourth goal of the season. Matthew Aoun and Tyson Papple assisted on the goal. Just over three minutes later, the Titans would strike again. The puck would roll down into the Corvairs zone and Caledonia goaltender Maverick Fletcher would try to beat Ryan Scriven to the puck but he was unsuccessful and Scriven would have the entire net to shoot at and he would make no mistake to increase the Titans lead to three goals. Gavin Christie grabbed the lone assist. Corvairs would answer less than a minute later though. Ethan Quick snagged his second of the game to bring the lead back to two. Just three minutes later, Aiden Kral would join the rush and skate up the left side, send it to Ethan Arrojado who was the late man into the zone and Arrojado would fire it past Fletcher to restore the three goal lead. Corvairs would make it interesting though. Ethan Quick and Ty McHutchion would score two quick ones but it would not be enough. The Titans would hang on to win their second straight by a score of 6-5 and would also hand Caledonia their second straight loss. Corvairs would outshot the Titans 48-43.
The Titans are back in action on Saturday at 1pm against the Pelham Panthers at the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre.
