Mar 08, 2013 | ccowan | 1703 views
Novice Rep Advance to OMHA Finals
On March 5th, The Strathroy Novice Rep Jr Rockets went into Dorchester with a 2-0 series lead, with hopes of ending it with a win and advancing to the OMHA Finals.
With their lives on the line, Dorchester came out very strong and played with a ton of effort. The Rockets found themselves outshot badly and down 3-0 after 2 periods of play.
The Rockets were not about to give up though. Instead, they dug deep and began moving their feet, which drew a penalty with 10 minutes left in the game. Coach Chris Cowan then called a timeout to get things organised. This paid off as Logan Parker picked up The Rockets first goal of the game, just 10 seconds into the power play, with a nice backhander. Ryan Sanders tallied an assist on the goal.
This seemed to get things going for The Rockets, who continued to push. Griffin Cann, Keith Dortmans and Logan Hackney all began to battle and skate harder to create some chances and help fend off Dorchester's attack. Just minutes later, The Rockets drew another penalty and took advantage of it again. This time Sanders fed a nice pass out front to Mark Hewitt, who found the back of the net to make it 3-2 with 8 minutes remaining.
The clock was now The Rockets' worst enemy. With a minute and 30 seconds left in the game, The Rockets were buzzing in Dorchester's end and pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. Then, with just 32 seconds on the clock, Hewitt came up huge to tie it with his 2nd goal of the game, as Parker drew the assist. The Strathroy bench erupted in celebration. Back-up goalie, Jack Adams, led the way to support his teammates as he has done so well all throughout Playdowns.
After defenceman Noah Williams was ejected from the game early on a very questionable call, Kaleb Boersma, Noah Kostesku, Curtis Lalich, and Isaac McKeown were forced to overcome the adversity and play with a shortened bench. They did just that, and fought hard all game to hold off their opponents, especially in the 3rd period. Lucas Goulart came up big in the 3rd period as well, giving his team a chance to come back by making some great saves. None bigger than the one he made on a shot from the slot with 10 seconds left in the game to hold onto the tie and get his team into sudden death overtime.
2 minutes into overtime, The Rockets would find themselves with another man advantage, and again they would capitalize. McKeown fed a pass up the ice to Sanders, who dished it over to Easton Cowan, who then split the defence and went in alone to bury the series winner. The Rockets completed a miraculous comeback to finish off the Semi Final series in 3 straight games and advance to the OMHA Finals.
These boys are the first Strathroy Novice team to reach the OMHA Finals since 2001/02. They will now face Tillsonburg or Pt Colborne, as Tillsonburg leads that Semi Final series 2 games to 1. Check www.sdmha.org for updates on game times and come out to support these kids who have shown a tremendous amount of heart to go undefeated to this point, and earn themselves a spot in the OMHA BB West Finals.