NEWS

Junior Harris notched two goals and two assists on Tuesday night, leading the Kingston Voyageurs to a commanding 3-1 series lead over Wellington with a 5-2 victory in game four.

Kingston 5 vs. Wellington 2 – Kingston leads series 3-1
(pictured – Junior Harris – photo credit: Dave Powers/OJHL Images - story courtesy of The Kingston Whig-Standard)
The Kingston Voyageurs snapped the home-team win trend of the Ontario Junior Hockey League playoff series Tuesday night in Wellington.  The Vees downed the Dukes 5-2 at the Wellington and District Community Centre. Kingston, with a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven first-round series, can eliminate the Dukes in Game 5 Thursday night at the Invista Centre.  Shut out 1-0 by the Dukes in Game 2 of the series in Wellington, the Vees were on the board early Tuesday night.  Junior Harris, with his first of two goals, scored at 4:54 of the first period while Kingston was down a man. It was the first shorthanded goal of the series by either team.  Graham Yeo also scored twice for the Vees with David Quesnele adding one.  The Vees never trailed, leading 2-1 after the first and 4-1 after two periods.  The fourth goal for Kingston, by Yeo, came with one second left in the second period.  The Vees outshot the Dukes 35-32. Kingston’s power play accounted for two goals from Harris and Quesnele.  Charlie Finn, who went into the game with a 1.01 goals-against average for the playoffs, allowed only a Nik Coric goal in the first period and one in the third by Kyle Paat.  Harris, Kingston’s leading scorer in the regular season, now has four goals in the series.  If the Vees are able to wrap up a series victory Thursday night on home ice, they could move into the top-seed position for the second round of the Northeast Conference playoffs.  The top-seeded Trenton Golden Hawks are already gone, eliminated in a stunning four-game sweep by Cobourg. The second seed, Aurora, trails Lindsay 3-2 in that best-of-seven series.
For the full game summary, please CLICK HERE.

Newmarket 4 vs. Whitby 1 – Newmarket leads series 3-2
In their best all-round sixty minutes of the series, your Hurricanes downed the Whitby Fury 4-1 Tuesday night in Whitby. They now lead the OJHL North-East Conference Quarter-Final series three games to two.  Newmarket was at its best in the first period, outshooting Whitby 12-3 and collecting two goals for their efforts. Before many of the spectators had even sat down in their seats after the national anthem, Elliott Burlon scored with a long shot only eight seconds in to set the stage for the evening. Still in the game’s first minute, Chris Chiste almost made it 2-0, ringing one off the post, having clearly beaten the Whitby goaltender.  Justin Maiolino added some icing to the strong twenty-minute effort, putting the Canes up by a pair at 18:52.  For the third straight game, Whitby came into the middle period having to dig themselves out of a hole. While they had a wide shot margin (19-7), they were only able to put one by Matt Wintjes, who had another stellar outing in goal for Newmarket. By the time the Fury potted what was to be their only goal of the game (6:05), Daniel Leavens had made the score 3-0 at 4:00 with a long shot from just inside the blueline that either fooled the Fury keeper or he just wasn’t ready for the shot.  Newmarket rang a couple of more shots off the goalpost in the second and later, successfully killed off a two-man disadvantage.  In the third period, Maiolino’s second of the game (on the power play, only the Canes’ 2nd PP marker of the series) at 9:15 finished things off. The Canes outshot Whitby in the third 16-11; 35-33 for the game.  Maiolino and Leavens both had two points on the evening.  A big shoutout to the large contingent of Hurricane fans in Whitby who, by their level of crowd noise, made it seem like a home game for the boys in black!  Game Six is at the Ray Twinney Complex in Newmarket Thursday night at 7:30pm.
For a full game summary, please CLICK HERE.

Lindsay 4 vs. Aurora 2 – Lindsay leads series 3-2
With the North-East quarter-finals all even at two games apiece, the Muskies and Tigers took to the ice for Game five on Tuesday night at the Aurora Community Centre.  After a quick start for the Tigers that would see Michael Keenan open the scoring just over three minutes into the game, the two teams would trade first period goals with Dylan Fitze replying for the Muskies and Adam DiBrina making it 2-1 entering the intermission.  The Muskies took control of the game in the 2nd period and never looked back en route to a 4-2 victory.  Vince Herlihey and Dean Klomp both notched 2nd period goals and Patrick Thornton iced the game with a shorthanded, empty-netter in the dying seconds to give Lindsay a chance to clinch the series on home ice with game 6 taking place Friday night at 7:30 pm.
For a full game summary, please CLICK HERE.