(article submitted by Ed Arciszewski)
Kincardine News Bantam LL1 faced-off against Kincardine LL2 on Sunday, 23Feb2014 for their second encounter in the playoffs. LL1 had lost the previous two regular season games and the first playoff game against LL2 and were looking forward to their last chance for redemption!
The game got off to a shaky start, with LL2 scoring 50 seconds into the match. It looked
like it might be a long night. However, that goal was instead the wake-up call for LL1.
Six seconds after the face-off at centre ice, Riley Cherrett scored unassisted to tie up
the game. Fourteen seconds later, Riley Kirkpatrick slid the puck into the net with
assists going to Cherrett and Tanner Charette for the lead. LL1 never looked back.
Ryan Burton padded the lead two and a half minutes later when he directed a puck at
the net from the corner off a blocked shot by Austin Platt - the puck had eyes and found
the back of the net through a lot of traffic in front. LL2 then took a time-out to refocus on
a game that was running away from them. The ploy didnʼt work as LL1 scored the next
goal on a low wrist shot from Damon Machon with two and a half minutes left in the
period on a feed from Kirkpatrick. The first period ended with Kincardine LL1 leading
4-1.
In the second period, LL1 started the parade to the penalty box with 8 minors and a
misconduct. LL2 kept out of the box, with only one penalty of their own. As a result the
play was mostly in LL1ʼs end. Solid goal keeping by Liam MacKinnon in this period with
help from defensive pairings of Brendan Arciszewski and Conner Dixon (the two
defense that stayed out of the penalty box) kept the game at 4-1 going into the break.
The third period saw a renewed LL2 team come out to take back the game. An early
goal closed the gap to 4-2. Play then opened up with some end to end action. LL1
finally managed another goal for some breathing room when Jamie Perraultʼs low shot from
the high slot found the back of the net through heavy traffic in front. Assists went
to Cherrett and Charette. LL2 answered with a goal of their own one minute later to set
up for an exciting finish to the game. With just less than two minutes remaining, LL2
pulled their goalie and piled on the pressure, but good defense kept the puck out of the
LL1 net for the 5-3 win, resulting in a split in the playoff series.