NEWS

(pictured - Calvin Higley celebrates his first period goal as the Tigers clawed back into the OJHL Championship Series with a 4-3 victory over Toronto Lakeshore - photo credit: Jay Johnston/OJHL Images)

The Aurora Tigers rallied from three goals down to secure a 4-3 win over the Toronto Lakeshore Patriots and cut the series lead to 2-1 in favour of the Pats.

The Patriots picked up from their game two victory and came out flying.  The team's top line of Nathan Feric, Doug Bonar and Kevin Shier continued to lead the charges and for the second consecutive game, Feric opened the scoring, picking the top corner from high in the slot to give Toronto an early 1-0 lead.  Just over six minutes later they struck again when game one and two game-winning goal hero Kevin Bonar tipped home a pass from Feric.  The very next shift out, the threesome continued to pressure the Tigers defence and Feric would again find Bonar in the slot to make it 3-0 Patriots just over halfway through the first period.  With the series seemingly slipping from their grasp, the Tigers began to mount their comeback, kicked-off with a power play goal from rookie rearguard Eric Williams and then a bouncing puck found its way to forward Calvin Higley, who just returned from his one game suspension, and he converted to make it a 3-2 contest entering the break.  Shots were even at 10 a piece during the first.

After a high-scoring first, the clubs settled into the second period and the goaltenders took over with both Kevin Entmaa for Aurora and Evan Buitenhuis for Toronto Lakeshore blanking the frame.  Shots favoured the home-side 9-8 with Aurora entering a critical third period trailing by a goal and already down two games in the series.

Early in the third Patriots' defenceman Niko Kovachis took his third minor penalty of the game for cross-checking and the Tigers would make him pay.  Once again it was the defensive regular season goal scoring leader Eric Williams, blasting home his second power play goal of the contest to knot the game at three with plenty of time left on the clock.  Time and again the two netminders came up big until Johnny Curran knocked home the eventual game winner with just under five minutes remaining.  After Buitenhuis kicked-out a low, hard shot from top-ranked minor midget star Travis Barron, the puck careemed off the end glass and bounced to the far side of the net where Curran was waiting to bank it off Buitenhuis and in for Aurora's first lead of the Championship Series.  Exactly one minute later, the Patriots thought they had tied the game on a point shot from defenceman Tyler Currie, but the referee deemed that Rory Bell had interfered with Entmaa and the goal was waved off with Bell being assessed a minor for goaltender interference.  The Tigers held on the rest of the way, outshooting Toronto 15-9 in the period and 34-27 overall in the game.

The Tigers swept the game's three stars led by Johnny Curran's game-winner as star one.   Williams and Curtis Warren were named the second and third star respectively in the victory.  The win cuts the Patriots series lead in half to 2-1 with a pivotal game four taking place on Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at Westwood Arena in Etobicoke with puck drop scheduled for 7:30pm.

For the full game summary, please CLICK HERE.