Toronto Patriots rolls over Kingston, 6-1
(pictured - The Toronto Patriots celebrate one of their 2nd period goals en route to a 6-1 victory over the visiting Kingston Voyageurs and took a 2-1 series lead in the 2015 OJHL Championship Series - photo credit: Shawn Muir/OJHL Images)
In a complete role reversal from game one on home ice, the Toronto Patriots came out flying, potting two early goals, and never looked back as they easily downed the visiting Vees 6-1 in game three of the 2015 OJHL Championship Series.
Just over three and half minutes into the frame, veteran forward Marcus Rose took a feed and cut through the neutral zone, making a quick move to the middle and snapping one high over Kingston netminder Daniel Urbani for his ninth of the post-season, bettering last season’s playoff total of eight. Just 29 seconds later with the Patriots continue to buzz around the Voyageurs end, Nathan Feric (wearing the ‘C’ in place of the suspended Luke Carter) made a nifty little move in tight below the goal line and after bouncing it off the post, the puck came straight to Pats’ leading goal scorer Mitch Emerson, who made no mistake in finding the yawning cage with Urbani down and out, notching his 12th of the playoffs. Toronto was in control throughout the first period and outshot the visitors 16-9 heading to the break.
Period two saw much of the game as the Patriots ultimately chased starting netminder Urbani from the cage with the constant barrage. Just 48 seconds into the second, late season acquisition Kody Gagnon buried his first of the post-season and just over a minute later, Mario Ferraro tallied his first to give the home squad a commanding 4-0 leads. The pair of goals by low-scoring defenceman was enough for Vees interim head coach Ben Munroe, who made the switch for the first time in the Championship Series, replacing Urbani with 20-year old backstop Matt Penta. The move paid dividends initially as Adam Brady buried a rebound with traffic seemingly sitting on top of Patriots netminder Mathew Robson in the creason, cutting the lead to 4-1. However, Toronto’s leading scorer Jacob Hayhurst notched his first of two power play goals, one-timing a cross-ice feed from Louis DiMatteo to restore the four goal cushion. The Pats once again handily outshot the opposition, this time 14-7 for a two period total of 30-16.
A fairly evenly played third period saw the shots finish 9-9 with the only goal coming late in the frame with the game’s outcome virtually decided. Hayhurst notched his second of the game on the man advantage, left all alone in the slot to fire it by Penta. Final shots in the game were 39-25 in favour of the Patriots who take a one game series lead with game four slated to take place in Kingston on Thursday night.
