Facing a divisional opponent in Brantford last night, the Festival Inn Major Bantam Lakers got off to solid start, but a short-handed goal by Brantford midway through the 1st period temporarily deflated their confidence.
Before the end of the opening period, the Lakers found themselves trailing the 1st place 99’ers by two goals. The Lakers refocused & turned up the heat in the 2nd period, which saw them start to take over the game. The Lakers controlled the majority of the play & with less than a minute to go, Jordan Currie rifled a slap shot from the point that found the twine to cut the Brantford lead to 1. Calvin Penney & Derek Cowing collected assists on the marker.
In the 3rd, the physical play picked up as both teams battled hard, with the Lakers being rewarded with 4:32 left in the game. Cowing won the battle down low in the Brantford zone & got the puck out front to Brad McClure who made no mistake depositing the puck into the top corner of net to tie the game. Ryan Chambers also picked up a helper on the goal. The Lakers pushed forward & had several scoring opportunities in the closing minutes but returned home with a 2-2 tie.
Coach Shaun Peet says “The boys showed tons of character tonight, trailing by two goals over half way into the game and continued to battle hard. Our focus tonight was on keeping things simple and not trying to force our opportunities, and it paid off defensively, particularly when it came to limiting odd-man rushes.”
Jake Partridge was strong between the pipes stopping 30 of 32 shots.