Despite rebounding to a Game 2 win in their first round
playoff series, the Minor Midget Lakers could not get past the London Jr.
Knights, bowing out in four games.
Game 3 was a well-played game for the Lakers for most of the
contest. The boys would jump out to an early lead, when Nolan Gagnier
chipped in a rebound on a Sheldon Pryce wrap-around attempt, just 30 seconds
into the game. Gagnier would try to stretch the lead on a breakaway
shortly after, but he fired it wide. He did manage to draw a hooking
penalty on the attempt, but the Lakers were unable to capitalize.
As is often the case after an early goal to start a game,
the play tightened up for the remainder of the first period and through the
second, with no scoring for either team. Both the London goalie and Laker
goalie Garrett Golley were solid, stopping everything thrown at them, but
overall the shot count was relatively low with the Huron-Perth boys blocking a
lot of shot attempts.
As time wound down in the third, London would manage to tie
the game up around the eight minute mark, when the Knight’s player was able to
stroll in and fire it past Golley, setting up a nail-biting finish. With
overtime looming, Laker defenseman Jack Robinson was assessed a very
questionable interference call with 1:19 left in regulation. The boys
were able to kill the first part of the penalty to end the third, but London,
still with the man-advantage, tallied the game winner to take Game 3 by a 2-1
score.
With backs to the wall, the Lakers hosted Game 4 hoping to
send the series back to London for a deciding game. Unfortunately, the
team did not get the start they were looking for with a tough-luck goal early
on when the puck was shot and got caught up in the equipment of the Knight’s
forward who was headed toward the goal, resulting in a lucky bounce goal that
goalie Carter Roth never saw. That goal fired up the Knights who tallied
three more first-period goals, one on a 5-on-3 powerplay as the Lakers were unable
to stay out of the penalty box.
The Lakers would strike back in the second, when the London
goalie misplayed the puck and Carter Schoonderwoerd scooped it up and put it in
the empty cage. London quickly extinguished that spark getting a pair of
powerplay goals past Golley, on in relief. Again, the Lakers would respond,
this time with a Thomas Gangl goal from the point on a Huron-Perth
powerplay. Lakers trailed 6-2 after two periods of play.
Bobby Leis would tally another for the Lakers in the third,
but it was not enough as London topped off the game with an empty net goal to
take the game 7-3 and the series 6 points to 2.
The
Minor Midgets now head back into group playoffs with a four point series
against the Windsor Jr. Spitfires or the Lambton Sting.