The Smiths Falls Bears had a busy but productive week in Central Canada Hockey League action with four games on the menu and a pair of wins to help solidify their hold on the number seven spot with 50 points on a record of 22-26.

The team is now three up on Nepean in the eighth spot, four on Kanata and five on Cumberland.

The Bears lost a tough one to Brockville on Valentine’s Day last week, then another to Cornwall Thursday, but turned things around by the weekend where they earned big wins over Kanata at home Friday, and Kemptville on the road Sunday, both by identical 5-4 scores.

Smiths Falls 5 Kemptville 4

On Sunday, Kemptville outshot Smiths Falls 35-23, but the stellar netminding of Bradley Dobson earned the Bears the much-needed win over the fifth place team.

Kris Lalonde was the only goal scorer in the first period as he gave the Bears the early lead at the 17:53 mark, assisted by Stuart Harley and Cole Busschaert.

In the second Tyler Beauparlant tied the rally at 1:07 with help from Matt Tugnutt and Jack A. York.

Alex DiCarlo and Kyle Dowdall (power play) put the Bears up by a pair with their goals at 5:02 and 8:44 respectively. Assists were credited to Busschaert, Hayden Hart, Ryan Gibson and Brett Garvey.

Before the period ended, Victor Tracy put the 73’s within one as he scored on the power play assisted by Tugnutt and Bobby Dow with 19:26 on the clock.

Heading into the final period, Ethan Coltart gave the Bears some breathing room at 7:39, helped out by Michael McKenney and Tre Folkes.

But Kemptville stormed back to tie the score with a pair of back-to-back markers from Row and Alexis Giguere with less than seven minutes remaining.

It wasn’t until 18:36 of the period that the Bears were able to score the winning goal, and it was Dowdall with the shot, assisted by Gibson and Hunter Garlasco as the Bears held on for the 5-4 win.

Nicholas Hodgins suffered the loss in nets.

Game stars were Dowdall (first) for Smiths Falls; Tugnutt (second) for Kemptville and Gibson (third) for Smiths Falls. The game was played in front of 249 fans.

Smiths Falls 5 Kanata 4

Stuart Harley had the lone goal in the third period Friday night as the Bears beat the Kanata Lasers 5-4 in Smiths Falls.

Harley scored with just 49 seconds left, assisted by Hart and Busschaert for the win.

It was a back-and-forth rally throughout this barnburner with 388 fans in the Bears Den to watch the action unfold.

Smiths Falls opened with Hart’s goal at the 53-second mark assisted by DiCarlo and Busschaert for the early lead.

The teams traded goals throughout the period with Kanata replying at 5:43 from Paul Vella, then Hart with his second at 16:56, before Kanata’s Ryan Horvath tied it up at two apiece with 19:49 on the clock.

DiCarlo and Busschaert shot out of the blocks early in the second to go ahead by two by the 6:15 mark. Assists came from Matthieu Franche, Hart (2), and Gervais.

But Kanata tied the rally with two power play goals from Bennett Stockdale and Ryan Bunka and the game was knotted at four-all, to set up the third-period heroics by Harley.

Bo Taylor picked up the win in nets with 36 saves. Jean-Phillippe Tourigny had the loss with 30 saves.

Game stars were Hart (first) for Smiths Falls; DiCarlo (second) for Smiths Fals, and Willem Gauthier (third) for Kanata.

Cornwall 4 Smiths Falls 1

Nicolas Coates had the one and only goal for the Bears on Thursday night in Cornwall as Smiths Falls fell 4-1 to the Colts.

Coates scored on the power play in the opening period assisted by Dowdall and Garlasco at the 7:00 mark.

Cornwall bounced back to score two before the period ended, and added one more in the second and their fourth and final in the third. Goal scorers were Tristan Conrad (power play), Keegan Mulhearn, Dean Derouchie and Tanner Spink.

There were 944 fans in attendance and game stars were Derouchie and Konik, first and second for Cornwall, and Coates, third for Smiths Falls.

The winning goalie was Liam Lascelle with 25 saves, while Dobson took the loss, turning away 37 shots.

Brockville 1 Smiths Falls 0

The Brockville Braves earned a 1-0 win over the Bears in Brockville on Feb. 14.

Goaltending was solid at both ends of the rink until the dying minutes of the game when Brockville’s Derek Bureau managed to get one past Taylor at the 16:12 mark.

The Braves outshot the Bears 43-32 for the win with Henry Johnson taking the credit between the pipes.

Just 200 fans were in attendance for this one. Game stars were Bureau and Jonhson for Brockville and Taylor for Smiths Falls.

Coming up

With just 10 games left in the schedule, the Bears are looking to grasp a playoff spot. They have a game against Nepean on Feb. 22 in Nepean, and on Friday, they host Gloucester at 730 p.m. Sunday, they’re in Cumberland for a 3 p.m. afternoon game.