Jonathon Brodie - Recorder & Times

The Brockville Braves lost 5-4 to the Ottawa Jr. Senators in a shootout Friday at the Memorial Centre.

Zero for six. That ’s now the Braves record against the Ottawa Jr. Senators this season. That’s two more wins than what’s needed to outlast your opponent in a best-of-seven playoff series. If Brockville sees Ottawa again this season, it will be in a playoff series.

To say Friday’s game was emotional would be putting it mildly. The seven emotional stages of grief — shock, denial, bargaining, guilt, anger, depression and hope — might best apply to fans at the Memorial Centre Friday.

SHOCK- The Braves stormed out to a three goal lead within the opening 10 minutes of the first period before Senators Luke McCaw made it 3-1 by the end of the frame. For a team that had lost eight in a row as a club against the Senators going into the game this provided a lot of shock.

The Braves offence looked strong in the opening period in terms of scoring chances, parking one to two players in front of the net to pounce on anything that bounced their way.

DENIAL-  In the second period the cracks started to show for Brockville with Ottawa netting a pair of goals and constantly attacking the Braves.

On Ottawa’s 28th shot they scored their second goal to make it 3-2. By the time they got their third goal 3:33 later, they had earned 35 shots and Brockville didn’t fire a puck on net in-between then.

Going into Friday’s game the Braves had led the Senators in the first period four times out of six games and still they hadn’t beaten them one this season.

Surely, this couldn’t happen again.

BARGAINING- Ottawa took the lead 13 seconds into a 5-on-3 power play to go up 4-3.

Fans yelled at the referees after the goal, screaming expletives and accusing them for giving up the goal. The officials, however, didn’t cost Brockville a three-goal lead.

There was 2:13 left in the game and the Braves pulled goalie Yaniv Perets to make it 6-on-4.

People in the crowd pleaded for the Braves to at least get a point out of the game.

Senators Jaren Burke took a shot from his own blue line that just missed the net and would have put the game to bed had it went in.

GUILT- Fans started walking to the exit with just over a minute left in regulation.

With 16 seconds left in the game the puck came loose in front of Ottawa’s net and the only person standing there was Devin Moore, who finished the game with two goals and an assist.

The people who were on the way out of the Memorial Centre came running back to their nearest viewing area and waited for overtime.

ANGER- 3-on-3 overtime was back-and-forth, but solved nothing. Typically fans should be happy when the Braves go to a shootout as their record was 4-1 going into Friday’s game. The anger should have come because the Braves only shootout loss came against Ottawa.

DEPRESSION- Senators Chiwetin Blacksmith scored the game winner in the shootout to seal the Braves’ fate.

Brockville has only managed to get two points out of a possible 12 against Ottawa.

The Senators are the only team the Braves haven’t been able to beat this season and they have now lost nine straight to them. The last time Brockville did beat Ottawa dates back to November 2015.

HOPE- Coach Colin Birkas sees the positive in his team.

Birkas’ pointst out Perets, a 16-year-old goalie, who has more than proved himself this season as a very good prospect and exceeded those expectations Friday with a 46-save performance. He now has a .926 goals against average after 13 starts.

“(Ottawa) needed to get some help from outside forces for them to be able to get those goals. They weren’t beating Perets five times 5-on-5,” said Birkas, who had to leave midway through the game because he felt ill before returning to the bench in the third period. “For a 16-year-old to have too battle through the penalties that he had to battle through, I thought it was a real good learning experience for him.”

Birkas is also willing to shrug off six losses to one team in one season. He compares the record to the years he coached the Kingston Voyageurs and had a 5-15-1 record against the Trenton Golden Hawks over four seasons, but beat them in each of the three times they met in the post-season.

“I could care less,” Birkas responded when asked about the six losses to Ottawa.

The next wave of emotions for the Braves come tomorrow when they travel to Hawkesbury to take o the Hawks before heading to Carleton Place on Monday to face-off against the Canadians.

Original Article at Recorder.ca