Sugar Kings dominating
Elmira goes up 3-0 over London in Sutherland Cup series
ELMIRA — The arithmetic is simple enough.
Jr. B hockey’s London Nationals have had plenty of shots, but not enough quality scoring chances, and consequently goals, in the all-Ontario Sutherland Cup final.
And then, there is heartbreaker Jonathan Reinhart doing his thing in the Elmira Sugar Kings’ net.
So now, the favourites from London are feeling the bite of Elmira’s 4-1 comeback win on Sunday night, the Kings’ third straight victory in this best-ofseven set.
The born-again Kings, playing with such poise and precision, are a win away from becoming the first wild-card team in history to claim the Sutherland Cup.
They can do just that on home ice on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, during a wild-and-woolly eight-minute span in the second, Elmira detonated for four goals, two on the power play and a short-handed tally by Ethan Skinner.
And for the first time in this series, the Kings outshot their opponents, firing 35 pucks, including an 18 second-period barrage, at a besieged Cameron Zanussi on Sunday.
Reinhart, named Ontario’s Jr. B player of the year last week, expertly steered aside 32 shots in the Elmira cage.
“We are not doing a good enough job of effectively using our shots, of getting to the areas we need to get to in order to score goals,” coach Pat Powers said of his Nationals, the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s most prolific playoff squad, before Wednesday’s contest.
“Goaltending is either a luxury or a curse. Right now, it’s a luxury for them.”
The sensational Reinhart, the 21-year-old Elmira resident, has allowed three goals in this series. He pitched a 2-0 shutout in Saturday’s action in London.
Through the first two games of the series, the Nationals outshot the Elmira Sugar Kings 89-48 but only out-chanced them on scoring opportunities 17-12.
Nationals captain Austin Kemp tapped in a loose puck on the power play to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead before 1,105 fans at the Dan Snyder Arena on Sunday.
Quinten Bruce, Klayton Hoelscher, Skinner and Mitch Hoelscher scored second-period markers for the hosts.
The Nationals were swept out of the Sutherland Cup final last year by the Caledonia Corvairs and are in danger of reliving that scenario again in 2017.
Never-say-die Elmira, eliminated by the Listowel Cyclones in the Cherrey Cup or Mid-Western Conference final a couple weeks ago, live on in the Sutherland Cup semifinal round as Jr. B hockey’s finalist with the highest winning percentage and on a goal-differential tiebreaker.
London advanced to the Suthie final after defeating Listowel in the semifinal round.
“Two wins on the road (in London) — our guys got some confidence out of that but I still don’t think (we) played great hockey,” said Kings coach Tyler Canal before Sunday’s match.