PATRIOTS IN CONTROL WITH 3-1 SERIES LEAD
(pictured - Evan Buitenhuis of the Toronto Lakeshore Patriots kicks out one of his 37 saves to earn 1st Star honours as the Pats picked up a 3-1 victory and are now just one game away from clinching their first-ever OJHL title - photo credit: Tim Bates/OJHL Images)
For the second consecutive game, the Patriots came out flying and for the second consecutive game the high-flying top line of Doug Bonar, Nathan Feric and Kevin Shier opened the scoring early in the contest. Tigers' netminder Kevin Entmaa kicked a Bonar blast high into the slot where, Feric was waiting to bury the rebound for his team-leading 12th market of the post-season, recorded in just 17 games played. Feric has opened the scoring in each of the Patriots' three victories thus far in the series. Just over six minutes later, on a broken play, Nicholas Ursitti literally dribbled a bouncing puck past the defender and then knocked it out of the air and past a surprised Entmaa for his third of the playoffs. Toronto Lakeshore netminder Evan Buitenhuis slammed the door on the Tigers the remainder of the frame with the shots 12-10 in favour of the home side.
Never a team to give up this season, the Tigers roared back in period two and as witnessed many times during the course of the season, rookie rearguard Eric Williams spearheaded the charge on the power play. Williams blasted home his league-leading fifth power play goal of the playoffs just past the midway point of the period to cut the Patriots lead in half. With both netminder coming up big for their clubs and Aurora fighting for their playoff lives, the shots favoured the Tigers 14-13.
The Patriots sealed the victory early in the third after a couple of defensive miscues by the Tigers. Andreas Tsogkas would capitalized on the turnovers and bury his seventh of the post-season to give Toronto a 3-1 lead just one minute into the final frame. Press as they may, the Tigers offensive attack was thwarted time and again by the backbone of the Pats, Evan Buitenhuis. He stopped 14 third period shots to preserve the victory and with 37 saves on the night, earn the game's first star in leading his club to a now-commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Ursetti with his first goal of the series was named star two, while Williams for the Tigers was named one of the game's star for the third time in four Championship Series games.
For the full game summary, please CLICK HERE.
Game five in the 2014 OJHL Championship Series will take place on Friday, April 18, 2014 at Canlan Ice Sports - York with puck drop scheduled for 7:30pm.
If you are unable to attend the game, you can watch it live on www.ojhl.fasthockey.com or Rogers Digital Cable York Region.
