Recorder & Times - Jonathon Brodie

Carpe diem.

That should be the Brockville Braves slogan after this weekend where they capped off a run of three games in four days with wins across the board.

Braves coach Colin Birkas said he looks at everything as an opportunity. The quick succession of games was a chance for Brockville to climb up the standings and they did just that by the end of the weekend as they now sit tied for fifth in the CCHL with the Kemptville 73s and inched closer to the Hawkesbury Hawks and Cornwall Colts, who are ahead of them by six points.

"Everything in life is an opportunity," Birkas said. "Three (games) in four nights is an opportunity to get six points and climb a bit and so far it looks like we're seizing the opportunity."

Brockville started the new year slow by scoring just one goal in two games to open 2017. The Braves have now scored at least four goals in their last three games, beating the Gloucester Rangers 4-1 on the road Sunday, Kemtpville 5-2 at home Friday, and the Kanata Lasers 5-4 in a shootout on the road last Thursday.

Things aren't slowing down for the Braves as they get set to travel to Smiths Falls to take on the Bears on Tuesday and then head to Nepean to faceoff with the Raiders on Wednesday. They return home Friday to play the Ottawa Jr. Senators before hopping on the bus again to take on Hawkesbury. That's seven games in 10 days for them.

So, what's working for the Braves right now? It's not just the mass amount of goals the Braves are scoring, it's the mass amount of players scoring them with every line contributing.

Brockville has scored 13 goals in the last three games and they've been picked up by 10 different players.

It's not just the offensive depth charts scoring either.

The defence has been chipping in with the Braves blue liners scoring five of those goals. In that respect, it was a good thing Brockville general manager Dustin Traylen had a game plan of not getting rid of his defencemen heading into last week's trade deadline.

Without giving away his secret, Birkas said he implemented a new offensive game plan in the new year that he says, "Doesn't require a whole lot of skill," which has helped with the team's scoring problems this season. The Braves are ranked ninth in the CCHL in the goals per game category.

"We put a game plan in place, so it's nice to see them, one, execute it and, two, being rewarded. For us to continue to get better they have to see the fruits of their labour and they finally are," Birkas said. "If you were to watch the clips of the goals, probably 80 per cent of the goals are very similar, which is very encouraging and means they're repeatable."

Now it's time to see how long the Braves can sustain this pace.

No one is expecting them to win every game or even all seven games over the course of the 10-day stretch, but fans have seen this Braves team before when they won seven of eight games before running into a cold streak where they went 2-for-7.

Consistency will be key if Brockville is going to continue their climb up the standings.

"I think seven (games) in 10 (days) is a little bit much, I don't care how well we're playing," Birkas said. "That's going to take it's toll and I guess at the end of this 10-day stretch we'll just have to see who is left standing and how many points we have."

Original Story at Recorder.ca