Atom Kinucks Oust Walkerton, News, Atom Rep, 2013-2014 (Kincardine Minor Hockey Association)

This Team is part of the 2013-2014 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Jan 20, 2014 | Mike Reaume | 920 views
Atom Kinucks Oust Walkerton
The Canadian Tire Kinucks were able to pull off three straight victories to best the Walkerton Capitals three games to one in the best-of-five first round OMHA Play-off series.  

 The teams were tied at one game apiece heading into game three after the Kinucks lost the first 3-2 and won the second 4-0. Game three was a barn-burner which saw the CTC boys take a 5-1 lead, only to have Walkerton storm back to narrow the gap to 5-4 before the Kincardine squad once again took control to muscle out a 7-4 victory. Kincardine opened the scoring just two minutes in when Nate Andrews was able to bang in a rebound off a Jordan Moulton shot. Walkerton responded four minutes later, a short-handed marker to tie the game at ones.  Andrews once again put the Kinucks ahead mid second frame as Nate Arnold fed the puck to Jordan Beisel who broke away 2 on 1 with Andrews, fed him a beauty pass that he was able to convert, high stick side. With two minutes to play in the second stanza, Walkerton was awarded a power-play that the coaches, in retrospect, wish they had the option to decline as the Kincardine penalty killers were able to score two shorties on the same penalty kill. The first by Nolan MacKinnon assisted by Jordan Moulton after some tireless work in the Walkerton end,  and the second by Jordan Beisel on an excellent end-to-end rush finished by a five-hole backhander. With 35 seconds remaining in the period, Wilson Shipp bulged the twine, assisted by MacKinnon and Moulton. Heading into the third with a 5-1 lead, the Kinucks thought they were sitting pretty but Walkerton had other thoughts in mind and as per their namesakes, Capitalized on some indifferent Kincardine play to shorten the gap to 5-4 with just three minutes remaining in the game. Tenuously holding on to their now one goal lead, Shippy made a mad dash up the ice, took a hard shot on net that the goalie stopped, but MacKinnon was driving the net and was able to bury the rebound for the insurance marker and his second of the game. Jordan Beisel rounded out the scoring, hammering home an empty netter as time expired.  Final score 7-4 for Kincardine and a 2-1 series lead.

Since Walkerton had won the coin toss, game four and game five (if necessary) were to be played in the Walkerton rink, with game four taking place on Fri Jan 17. After watching the Capitals tenacity and refusal to give up, the Kinucks were hoping to close out the series in game four and avoid another trip back to the Walkerton barn in an “anything can happen” game five.  Both teams seemed a bit edgy in this affair, Walkerton trying to stave off elimination and Kincardine hoping to close the series out, as evidenced by a 0-0 tie going into the third. Kincardine did manage to get some shots off in the first two periods but they made it easy on the Caps goalie as most were high and wide, or right into the goalie’s bread basket. As the game wore on, the crowd on both sides were on the edge of their seats,  only to gasp loudly when the referee inadvertently rocked Nolan MacKinnon with a solid body check and then fell on top of him for good measure. Slowly making his way to the Kincardine bench, a seething MacKinnon took a break and recovered from the shock. This seemed to work as MacKinnon hit the ice with six minutes to play, gathered the puck on a 3 on 1, cut into the Walkerton slot and snuck a backhand shot under the goalie’s blocker and over his pad to give Kincardine the lead. Three minutes later, Kincardine was awarded a power-play and MacKinnon once again scored, picking the puck up at centre, making a slick deke around the Capitals defenseman and rifling a shot bar-down to give the CTC boys the 2-0 lead and the series win.  Next up for the Kinucks are the Listowel Cyclones which starts on Wed Jan 29th in Listowel.

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