NEWS

Although a mid-afternoon contest, game three of the OJHL South-West Conference Final would go well into the evening with Stephen Pietrobon of the St. Michael's Buzzers notching his second of the game to end a marathon with the 5-4 game-winner at 3:56 of the third overtime period.
(pictured - Stephen Pietrobon scores the game-winner in triple overtime of game three - photo credit: Andy Corneau/OJHL Images)

Both netminders would turn in stellar performances with North York's Jason Pucciarelli turning aside 54 shots, while the Buzzers' Adrian Ignagni stopped a remarkable 86 shots for the victory in front of 508 spectators at the venerable St. Michael's College School Arena.

The first period saw the high-flying North York Rangers fire 24 shots at the Buzzers cage with Ignagni turning all of them aside.  Meanwhile his teammates would finally start to taste some success against Pucciarelli at the other end of the ice, notching three goals for an early 3-0 lead.  Shane Conacher opened the scoring, followed by Matt Galati and CJ Shugart.

The Rangers finally broke through in period two, as Franco Loparco and Adam Valadao scored early and Liam Kerins notched his ninth of the playoffs to knot the game at three with just 16 seconds remaining in the frame.

The action-packed contest continued in the third and Stephen Pietrobon potted his first of the game midway through the period to give the home squad the lead.  With the clock ticking down and just over three minutes remaining, OJHL playoff scoring leader Corey Kalk tallied his 13th of the post-season, on a goal scorer's wrap around, to tie the game once again and send it to extra time.

North York would continue their dominance on the shot clock through two overtime periods, outshooting the Buzzers 38-18, but Ignagni's mastery between the pipes continued, giving his club a chance to win.

As one of the most entertaining games of the entire 2012-13 OJHL season entered the third overtime period, and both sides physically exhausted, the Buzzers picked the right time to turn up the heat.  Just under four minutes in, Pietrobon netted his second of the game off a three-on-one rush to end the lengthy affair after just four hours of play.

With the Buzzers leading the series two games to one, game four in the series will take place on Tuesday, April 2 at Herb Carnegie Arena with puck drop at 7:30pm.

For a full game summary, please CLICK HERE.

South-West Conference Championship

Game One          North York 3 @ St. Michael’s 2   (North York leads series 1-0)
Game Two          St. Michael’s 4 @ North York 1   (Series tied 1-1)
Game Three       North York 4 @ St. Michael’s 5 (3OT) (St. Michael's leads series 2-1)
Game Four         St. Michael’s @ North York          Apr. 2, 7:30pm
Game Five          North York @ St. Michael’s          Apr. 3, 7:30pm
Game Six             St. Michael’s @ North York          Apr. 5, 7:00pm (if necessary)
Game Seven      North York @ St. Michael’s          Apr. 7, 7:00pm (if necessary)