Mar 26, 2010 | tmacmillan | 2380 views
Playoff Winners!!
The STMHA Novice A Team recently won the Shamrock Hockey League, Novice Division, Pool "C" Playoffs after defeating the Strathroy Rockets 3 games to 1 in the Championship series. After finishing the regular season 9-9-3, the boys improved to a 9-2 playoff record and won gold. Well Done!!!!
After finishing league play with a .500 record, our first playoffs series was a 3 team head to head round robin against St. Mary's and South Huron. By finishing 1st in that series with a 3 - 1 record, we advanced to the Semi-Final round against West Lorne. Three consecutive wins against West Lorne advanced our team to the Finals against Strathroy and improved our playoff record to 6 - 1.
With home ice advantage, Strathroy took the first game 4 - 1. Russell Oldham scored our single goal.
Not to be discouraged, the boys evened the series at home with a 5-2 victory. Tyler MacMillan opened the scoring in the first period with a quick wrap-around from behind the net. Strathroy tied the game 1-1 in the second before Russell Oldham scored to restore St.Thomas' lead. Russell went on to score 3 more goals to secure the win. Taylor Honsinger recorded another strong playoff performance by limiting Strathroy to just 2 goals.
Back in Strathroy for the pivotal game 3, Taylor Honsinger was called upon for his second consecutive start in goal, and again limited Strathroy to only 2 goals as our guys came away with a convincing 8-2 victory. With another 4 goal game by Russell Oldham, combined with singles by Tyler MacMillan, Tommy Zuefult, Devon Kaplanis and Drake Hunter we proved to be too powerful for Strathroy. While Taylor made several key saves, our defensemen played perhaps their strongest game of the season. With this win, we gained home ice advantage and were set to win the series coming back to St. Thomas for Game 4.
Game 4 brought all the excitement of one team set to win the gold, and the other team trying to avoid defeat. Although posting the loss in game 1, Zack Mayer was called upon to play goal and put forth an excellent effort that started with a breakaway save early in the first period. This back and forth game saw us down one goal headed into the 3rd, until Russell scored just :73 in, to tie the game at 2. Tyler deflected Chase Cookson's slapshot from the point just :23 later giving us the lead for the first time in the game. With Strathroy fighting to extend the series, the score was again tied mid-way through the period. As the teams continued to battle, Strathroy was called for a tripping penalty with 3:17 remaining in regulation. It only took :13 second on the powerplay for Russell to net his 3rd of the game, which stood out to be the game winner. Now ahead 4-3 and just over three minutes remaining the in the game, St. Thomas turned to strong defensive play to preserve the win and capture the Gold medal. Congratulations boys on a very enjoyable season and an excellent, well played playoffs.