The Ingersoll Carmeuse Lime Express Juvenile rep tied the Hespeler
Shamrocks 4-4 after a 10 minute overtime to extend the Beechey Juvenile “A”
playoff championship series to third game.
After dropping game one of the series on Tuesday night by a 4-1 score, the Express needed to win or tie on Saturday night to extend the series to a third game in the four point series. The first period would feature end to end action, but there was no scoring until late in the period. With Ingersoll on a two man advantage, Ethan Hurst would find a loose puck low in the faceoff circle and fire a slap shot past the Shamrocks goalie with 0:48 seconds remaining in the first period. Nathan Graham and Christian Johnston would draw assists on the goal that gave the Express a 1-0 lead after the first period.
Early in the second period, the Shamrocks would tie the score on a power play goal. Then just 35 seconds later, the Shamrocks would take a 2-1 lead when a loose puck would find its way to a Hespeler player after a mad scramble in front of the Ingersoll net. Halfway through the second period with the teams playing 4 on 4, Clayton Hammond would cleanly win a faceoff in the Shamrocks end and Ethan Hurst would wire a wrist shot from the point and beat the Hespeler goalie on the glove side to tie the game at 2-2. With 5:25 left in the second period Derek Johnson would feed a perfect pass from behind the Shamrock’s net to Qwerty Dei who would pick the low glove hand side corner of the net with a pinpoint shot to give the Express a 3-2 lead. Ethan Hurst also drew an assist for his third point of the game. With 1:55 left in the second, the Shamrocks put home a rebound to score a power play goal to tie the game at 3-3 after the two periods.
In the third period, Hespeler would take a 4-3 lead with a power play goal when a Shamrock’s pass from behind the net deflected off a skate and into the net. With time winding down and Ingersoll in desperate need of a goal, the Express would find themselves on a power play. On the ensuing faceoff, Qwerty Dei would win the faceoff and slide the puck back to defenceman Tanner Gray who fired a slap shot that beat the Shamrock’s goalie and found the net just under the cross bar with 3:50 left in the third period. Despite some late chances by both teams, regulation time would end with the score 4-4.
The 10 minute sudden death overtime period would start with Hespeler on the power play which Ingersoll was able to kill off with some strong penalty killing. It appeared the Hespeler had scored the game and series winning goal later in the period but the net was ruled off the moorings before the puck entered the net which nullified the goal. Ingersoll would again find itself shorthanded late in the overtime period but again some strong penalty killing and some great saves by goalie James Allison would keep the Shamrocks from scoring the winning goal. Despite some late chances by the Express, the game would end 4-4 which allowed the Express extend the series to a third game. Hespeler leads the series 3 points to 1.
The teams will play game 3 on Friday night in Hespeler at 9:00 p.m. Ingersoll must win the game either in regulation or overtime. Should the Express win on Friday night the teams would then play a game 4 in Ingersoll. The date and time of a possible game 4 has yet to be determined.