By Kevin Gould, Cornwall Standard-Freeholder

The Ottawa Junior Senators are one game from sweeping, the Cornwall Colts one game from elimination.

“It’s like they have 10 guys on the ice and we have five. We’re making them look like they should be in another league, one higher than this,” said Colts’ coach Ian MacInnis, after his team’s 4-1 loss at home on Tuesday night, which saw the Junior Sens take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven CCHL semifinal.

“They get to every puck first. We’re not moving it quick enough. We’re holding on to it a bit too long.”

The game was won (or in the case of the Colts, lost) on special teams. Every goal came with someone in the sinbin, Ottawa scoring three times on the power-play, Cornwall once. The Junior Sens, ouch, also scored shorthanded.

“Their special teams have been better the whole series, but yeah, they were tonight,” said MacInnis. “They’re just better.”

The Ottawa power-play was especially sharp, keeping the puck in the Cornwall end for long stretches.

“We struggled on the power-play all year,” said Ottawa coach Martin Dagenais. “Our assistant coach, Chris Kushneriuk, has really been working with them the past couple of months, and it’s paid off.”

Not that the Sens relied solely on the power-play. They looked pretty good five-on-five too. They just didn’t score.

“I think we dominated five-on-five,” said Dagenais, who was asked what he thinks the biggest difference has been in this series.

“I think our speed, they’ve had trouble with it. And I think a big difference is probably the back end. We’re deeper on the back end, and it shows. And we have a guy in net who is at the top of his game, he can make the big stop.”

That would  be goaltender Ian Andriano, who didn’t have to make too many big stops in Game 3.

“Not that our forwards have been great,” offered MacInnis, “but yeah, they’ve (Ottawa’s defence) been good.”

The Junior Sens scored the only goal of the opening period, and it was a real punch to the gut, coming with just three ticks left on the clock.

Jaren Burke was the culprit, his first shot (a rebound off a wrister from the point) stopped by a sprawling Liam Lascelle, but the second one lifted over the prone Cornwall netminder.

Burke, who is having quite a series with at least one goal in every game against the Colts (and four in three games), had just returned to the ice, following a two-minute minor and 10-minute misconduct for a hit to the head of Cornwall captain Grant Cooper.

“He really killed us at the net,” said MacInnis of the big Ottawa forward. “Even when you’re on him, he gets a stick on it. You have to mark him, can’t let him have any space. It has to be skin on skin.”

Dagenais likewise had high praise for Burke, who now leads the CCHL in playoff scoring, with 10 points, and goals, with eight.

“He’s a machine,” said Dagenais of the 6’3, 215-pound, 20-year-old Burke. “Again tonight, the best player on the ice.

“For me, I think he has pro potential. There are a lot of D-I kids out there on the ice, and he’s the best kid out there.”

Burke doesn’t have an NCAA Division I offer. Yet.

“He will. He’s talked to some and I’m sure there will be more with the way he came on this season and the way he’s played in the playoffs,” said Dagenais.

Burke was at it again in the second period, tipping a point shot perfectly into the top corner at the 4:30 mark.

Of course it was a power-play goal, as was Luke McCaw’s wicked wrister from the right faceoff dot 11:29 in.

The Colts finally got one by Andriano, David Poirier scoring with just two seconds left in a five-on-three advantage for Cornwall. It came with 5:13 left in the period, and gave the Colts some hope, which is what they took to the dressing room after two periods, their season pretty much on the line.

The only goal of the third was a shorthanded marker, by Griffin McGregor midway through the period.

Not much time to regroup for the Colts, who are in Ottawa on Wednesday night, for Game 4.

“We’ll go at it tomorrow and see what happens,” said MacInnis.

If necessary, Game 5 will be played on Friday (7:30 p.m.), at the Benson Centre.