Playoff Championship vs Hamilton
Submitted By webmaster on Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The major atoms find themselves fighting for their playoff lives after this weekend, after an excellent effort and a devestating loss in overtime today. Hamilton now leads the championship series 4 points to 2.
Friday was a tight game to the bitter end but a very late goal sealed it for Hamilton 5-3. Josh Bayne had a solid effort in net. Carson Payne scored our first goal, assisted by Ben Arthurs and Alec Trusler. Josh Vale was awarded a penalty shot in the second period and tied the game at 2. Both teams traded goals as Kyle Blunt scored, assisted by Dante Fuoco and Cameron Rombouts. Hamilton scored late in the second and again with 1 minute left in the third to take the victory.
The intensity was stepped up another notch in Hamilton for game 2 as the Sting scored 1:30 in overtime to take a much needed victory in this series. Lambton struck first midway throught the first period as Theo Crombeen scored assisted by Joey Ferrera. Hamilton scored with only 22 seconds in the first and 4 minutes into the second to take a 2-1 lead. The sting battled even harder and tied the game 1 minute later as Cameron Adam scored unassisted. The Sting outplayed Hamilton for the duration of the game until Jakob Knowles made a sprawling save with 2 seconds left in the game to force overtime. Dante Fuoco buried a rebound with a scrum out front and an assist was awarded to Kyle Blunt.
The intensity was cranked up another notch to the point that the refs after the game even commented what an outstanding game he witnessed. This game 3 in Sarnia was again controlled by Lambton for most of the game but a hot goaltender for Hamilton saved the day for them. Jakob Knowles made some big saves in this game but Lambton really outshot Hamilton by about a 2 to 1 margin. However, Hamilton refuses to give up and proves to be a truly deserving championship finalist. Hamilton was first to break the ice about half way through the second period to take a 1-0 lead. Theo Crombeen tipped in a blast from Gage Langford to tie the game at 1-1 late in the second. The game eventually went to overtime and Hamilton tipped in a shot from the point to steal a lucky victory in overtime.
Our guys really deserved to win game 3 but that is how the game goes sometimes. We will have to beat them in their own barn Friday night to force game 5 at home and I think these guys have what it takes to do just that.
Coach Dean.
