Feb 16, 2016 | Ryan Stewart | 615 views
Playoff Game #3, February 16
The heat was turned up a notch in Strathroy tonight as two great teams arm wrestled for supremacy on the ice. Our backs against the wall facing a strong opponent is a familiar story told over and over again this time of year in the playoffs. This story is just a bit more exciting than your average playoff game.....I believe an intense edge of your seat cliff-hangar might be a better term...........
Ok cliff-hangar might be a bit dramatic especially for our level play in the first period. We started off with our usual so so performance and when you are playing a great team like Strathroy Blue a so so performance isn't good enough. They will make us pay and that's what happened, less than 2 minutes into the game Strathroy managed to sneak one under Ben and then about 5 minutes later they scored again putting us down by two at the end of the first.
It would definitely be an uphill battle to try and get back in this, we needed to get more pucks to their net. Our play improved in the 2nd period and the play was back and forth. Strathroy was doing a good job foiling our chances and Ben made some really good stops to keep us at a 2 goal deficit. We thought we had a goal when the puck appeared to be in the net but the ref said it was under the goalies pad so no goal. As time was ticking down in the 2nd Strathroy got a break away and shot the puck just as the buzzer sounded to end the period. It went in but didn't count because time had expired. I guess the breaks work themselves out in the long run.
We had 10 minutes of hockey left. The kids desperately needed a goal to lift our spirits and turn things up a notch.
At the 7:41 mark of the 3rd period Aiden Sinclair scored and gave us the badly needed lift we were hoping for. The well earned assist went to Denny Doxtater who rushed the puck into the zone and created the scoring opportunity. The team picked things up and kept playing hard. We were pressing but nothing was going in. Time was slowly ticking away on our season and a sense of urgency was increasing with each second. With about 1 minute left on the clock we got a faceoff in the Strathroy zone and Coach Ryan seized the opportunity to pull Ben for the extra attacker. It was mayhem in the Strathroy zone, we were pushing hard for the equalizer and with just 20 seconds left on the clock Brett Fair hit the jackpot with the tying goal assisted by Aiden Sinclair and Evan Thomas. The kids celebrated after the game like we had just won in OT and I think this tie felt almost as good. It keeps us in the series and and gives us another opportunity to play hard and beat these guys. Great job team!
Coach Pat