The Huron Perth Lakers AAA Major Atoms traveled to Brantford on February 24th to meet the 99’ers in the third game of the six point series. The series was tied at a win a piece heading into this pivotal third game. As in the past the 99’ers came out flying and pushed the Lakers back on their heals early in the game. Goalie Kent Taylor made a fabulous save one minute into the game. Two minutes later Brantford capitalized on a Laker give away along the wall and put a low screened shot into the Laker goal. At the mid way point of the 1st the Lakers found their skating legs. The line of Bayley Boyes, Jared McCann and Gregory Swan applied our first pressure of the game with some good fore checking. McCann flipped the puck to Boyes who found the back of the 99’ers net to tie the score at one.
To start the 2
nd a bouncing puck caused some trouble and
Brantford went up 2-1. Less then 2 minutes later the 99’ers increased their lead to 3-1. With
1:54 left in the 2
nd the
Brantford team pushed another goal in to go ahead 4-1. The Lakers came storming right back within 10 seconds as Maverick Petrie set up Swan who made a fine shot that just crossed the goal line making the score 4-2. The Lakers have been down before and one thing is for sure…Jamie Petrie’s team never gives up. At the 12 minute marker Quinton Haddock drove the puck deep into the 99’ers zone. McCann showing some great hustle got to the puck first and fought off a defender. McCann found Boyes with a nifty pass and Boyes made a great shot to make the score 4-3. As the play went end to end the officials were not too kind to the Lakers. The team fought through all sorts of challenges and kept working hard. With 12 seconds left the face off was out side the 99’ers blue line.
Taylor was on the bench for the extra attacker. Boyes won the draw to Garrett James who smartly fed a long cross ice pass to Nathan Templeman. He stepped over the blue line and left fly a hard shot which alluded the
Brantford goalie to tie the score 4-4. The game headed to a 5 minute overtime period. The same pattern continued with
Brantford storming the Lakers net early only to find
Taylor putting up a wall in net. The Lakers owned the last 4 minutes of overtime but could not buy a goal leaving the game tied at 4.
The Lakers and Branford 99’ers played the 4th game of the Alliance Quarter finals play downs on Feb. 25th in Brussels. The first period was evenly played with several good chances for both teams. The Lakers got on the score board first at the 8 minute mark. Connor Shaw held the puck in and fired a low rocket towards the net. While screening the goalie Quinton Haddock made a great play tipping the puck past the Branford goalie. With one minute left in the period the 99’ers evened the score at one with a short handed goal. The second period again was full of excitement with the Lakers holding a slight edge on scoring chances. Brantford pulled ahead 2-1 seven minutes into the period with their 2nd short handed goal after Taylor made a good save only to have the rebound find a Branford stick. With 5 minutes remaining in the period Alex Peters made a good pass to Jared McCann. McCann cut into the slot and fired a slap shot into the net making the score 2-2. The Lakers missed a glorious opportunity as they had a 5 on 3 power play but could only muster a couple of shots on goal. The third period found the Lakers in the penalty box a few times including a bench minor for too many men on the ice…all putting the Lakers on the defensive side of their game. Brantford scored two goals mid way through the period to up the score to 4-2. With 2 minutes remaining the Lakers pulled Taylor for the extra attacker. The 99’ers made this move back fire as they scored 2 quick goals to ice the game 6-2. The Lakers hustled as a team but their special teams let them down this game. The Lakers next game is in Brantford on Feb. 26th at 7pm. Written by Jeff Swan