2015 TELUS Cup Central Regional Championship - Day Three Action
Thursday, April 2, 2015 - Submitted by Scott Greguol - Ontario Media Director
Etobicoke, ON - Day 3 of the Central Regionals took place Wednesday at Westwood Arenas in Etobicoke and featured some matchups with playoff implications.
To start the day, the Ottawa Senators took on the Soo Thunderbirds. Both teams were winless entering the contest and it was a much needed win by both teams.
Troy MacTavish opened the scoring for the Senators on a rebound off a shot from the point to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. Lucas Miller replied shortly after for the Soo on a partial break from the circle to even the score at 1-1.
Jamie Watt and Mason Farnes scored for the Sens to take a 3-1 lead however Jason Bednarski pulled the Thunderbirds to within a goal with a snap shot from the slot.
Early in the second MacTavish added his 2nd of the game and then Collin Baggio another for the Sens to make it 5-2.
Late in the period a shot from the Soo point found its way through the traffic and trickled in behind the Ottawa netminder and the 2nd period ended with the Senators holding a 5-3 lead.
The scoring fell off at this point as the teams battled through the final frame without a goal as the Senators went on to win 5-3 to move to 1-2-0 while the Thunderbirds fell to 0-2-1.
In game 2 of the day we saw the Don Mills Flyers and Whitby Wildcats. In the opening period both teams traded chances both goalies making key saves to keep the score even.
Early in the second however that changed when Joshua Argier took a breakaway pass in and put it past the Flyers goaltender to give Whitby a 1-0 lead.
Things stayed that way until late in the period when a Flyer shot hit the cross bar and took a favourable bounce and ended up in the net. The goal was credited to Devon Oates of the Flyers and we had a tie game at 1-1 through 40 minutes.
With a 5 on 3 powerplay Julian Florindi put the Flyers in front 2-1 just 20 seconds into the 3rd off a rebound. Whitby responded with a 5 on 3 powerplay goal of their own just 3 minutes later to square things up at 2-2.
Argier got this one on a nice passing play that ended with Argier's second of the game. Argier completed the hat trick a few minutes later to give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead.
With just 6 minutes to play however James Ranson of the Flyers pounced on a rebound during a powerplay to tie the game at 3-3. Despite some late chances the teams both earned a point with a 3-3 final. The Flyers got another single point with their 3rd straight tie moving their record to 0-0-3 while the Wildcats record moved to 2-0-1.
The final game featured the Toronto Nationals and the London Jr Knights in a wild game that saw 13 games between the the teams.
The Jr Knights got the scoring started when Brandon Glover scored on a weak angle on the Nationals netminder to give the Nationals their first deficit of the week.
However the explosive National powerplay capitalized with 5 minutes to go in the period to tie the game at 1-1. Just a minute later a London giveaway led to another Nationals goal to make it 2-1.
The Jr Knights responded a minute later with one of their own however the Nationals would retake the lead 3-2 with a goal from Nolan Reagan with 1:50 to play in the period.
In the second Ethan Nother of the Jr Knights took a stretch pass into the Nationals end and buried it to tie things up at 3-3.
Toronto took back the lead with a powerplay goal from Andrew Breda and never game up the lead the rest of the way.
Alex Ierullo, Jordan Sambrook and a pair from Max Routledge for the Nationals were added while Ryan Hopkins and Wes Kelly added goals for the Jr Knights. 8-5 was the final in favour of the host Toronto Nationals.
With the win the Nationals clinched a spot in the weekend semi finals moving their record to 3-0-0 while the Jr Knights fell to 0-2-1 despite giving the Nationals their toughest test so far.
Day 4 Schedule: 3:00pm London Jr Knights vs Ottawa Senators 5:30pm Whitby Wildcats vs Soo Thunderbirds 8:00pm Toronto Nationals vs Don Mills Flyers
