The drama continues in the Howe Sound Men's Hockey League playoffs, with two five-game semifinals, an underdog's triumph, an injury to a key player and a contentious finish to game 1 of the finals.
The best-of-five finals got under way Wednesday night (March 23) between the Chiefs and the Flyers after both semi-final series went the distance.
The Chiefs, who placed fourth in the regular season, completed their upset of the first-place Predators with a convincing 6-0 victory in game five of their series Monday night (March 21) at Brennan Park. The Chiefs came out hungry, consistently winning the race to the puck. Six of the Chiefs players got a turn to put the puck in, while Chiefs goalie Rob McNutt stopped every one of the Predators attempts.
The rivalry got serious during game four of the Red Wings/Flyers semi-finals Friday (March 18). The Flyers went into the five-game series up by 2-1, but the Red Wings weren't going to back down. By the middle of the last period, the Red Wings were leading 5-2, and a collision in nets resulted in a broken arm for Flyers goaltender Steve Hadden. The Red Wings won the game with a score of 6-3, pushing the competition to game five.
Steve Wythrich replaced Hadden in goals on Sunday (March 20) and the Flyers were first on the board with a goal by Scott Jensen. The Red Wings came back with one, but the second period belonged to the Flyers, who won the series with a game score of 4-3.
The drama continued in game one of the finals Wednesday night (March 23) with a 3-2 overtime win for the underdog Chiefs.The game was a tight back-and-forth contest throughout. After a scoreless first period, Mike Carney opened the scoring for the flyers just over a minute into the second, but the Chiefs came back a mere 92 seconds later with a marker from Chris Kormendy. The Chiefs took a 2-1 lead with 6:41 left on a goal by Kyle Lang, only to see the Flyers' Leon Renfro tie it back up less than a minute later to send the game to extra time.
The Flyers' Miles Rosser went to the penalty box for tripping with a mere three seconds left in the second, giving the Chiefs nearly two full minutes of 5 on 4 in the five-minute overtime. They capitalized on it when Mike Bishop put an unassisted marker past Wythrich with 3:32 left in OT.
The series is breaking for Easter weekend, resuming Wednesday (March 30) at 8:45 p.m. Game three is next Friday (April 1) at 9:55 p.m.
-with files from Tim Shoults
