Staying alive
Peterborough 10, Burlington 9 (OT)
Junior A Lakers tie series in OT
The Peterborough Merit Precision Jr. A Lakers snatched victory from the jaws of defeat Friday.
Trailing by two goals late in overtime the Lakers scored three times in the final 2:27 beating the Burlington Chiefs 10-9 on the only lead they had all game before 500 fans at the Memorial Centre.
The Lakers staved off elimination tying the best-of-five OLA Jr. A quarter-final 2-2 forcing a deciding Game 5 in Burlington 7 p.m. Saturday.
Zach Herreweyers scored the decisive goal with 43.9 seconds left taking a pass from Turner Evans and firing a shot off the left leg of Chiefs goalie Doug Buchan.
The Lakers trailed 9-7 after Jacob Ruest skipped his fourth goal of the game through goalie Donovan Fleischer’s legs with 2:39 left. Riley Quinlan started the rally 12 seconds later on a breakaway after Nick Weiss won a draw and fed him the ball. Josh Currier tied it 34 seconds later diving to avoid the crease while burying the ball on a set-up by Evans who had a goal and four assists.
“It’s easy to pack it in and think the game is over being down a couple,” said Lakers assistant coach Dan Carey.
“Our guys never gave up and that’s what we’ve been preaching to them. When they do play a full 60 minutes, or i n this case a full 70, it's great what these guys can do. I’m happy for them, it’s a big morale boost, but we have to go to work tomorrow.”
Quinlan said Carey had some inspiring words prior to overtime.
“He said everyone stick your hand up who is a fifth year player,” Quinlan said.
“Five or six of us stuck our hands up and he said to play for those guys. We didn’t want to go out like this. (Eric Shewell) was suspended and we didn’t want him to leave on a bad note like that. We kept plugging away and showed perseverance to get the win.”
After 36 goals between the teams on Thursday, neither offence was too i mpressive in the first period, in fact the Lakers were shutout.
Gianni Bianchin gave Burlington a lead 1:51 off a two-on-one pass from Bryan Cole picked off a Herreweyers pass. A dropped ball by the Lakers was scooped up by Danny Lomas who fired a shot that beat Fleischer from just over centre with 4:07 left in the period which ended 2-0.
It took the Lakers 28:06 to get on the board when Fleischer sent Kyle Trolley in alone on a breakaway with a fastbreak pass. Nolan Apers restored the two-goal gap 2:15 later quick-sticking a Ruest pass.
Weiss bulled his way to the net slipping a low shot past Buchan as he was taken to the floor at 11:45. Ruest answered 1:13 later completing a nifty three-way passing play. Zac Currier got the ball off the ensuing faceoff and ripped a sidearm shot home cutting the deficit to 4-3.
The Lakers had a power play to end the period but rather than tie it up they surrendered a shorthanded goal with 12.8 seconds left to head to the intermission down 5-3. Ruest split two defenders to take the ball off the boards and to the net dropping it by Fleischer.
The Lakers outscored Burlington 3-1 in the third to force overtime. Josh Currier scored 35 seconds in on the power play bounc- ing a backhand through Buchan’s legs. Cam Milligan tied it at 6:30 going to the net to finish Kyle Killen’s pass as he came off the bench to take a feed from Herreweyers.
Just seven seconds later the Lakers went down a man for four minutes when Mat Gilray was assessed a checking from behind double-minor. Burlington took the lead on the power play with a lucky bounce as Ruest’s shot bounced off the glass and hit Fleischer in the back and dropped in the net at 7:59.
Fleischer made a big stop with 3:30 left and Quinlan turned the ball up floor to a streaking Evans who tied it 6-6.
Burlington jumped ahead 10 seconds into overtime as Patrick Corbett won a draw to himself and spun off a check going to the middle to sidearm a shot by Fleischer. Herreweyers tied it 1:14 later dancing along the crease line to finish a pass from Evans.
Tyler Albrecht made it 8-7 with 3:45 left on a great solo effort creating a turnover then fighting off two checks to score.
NOTES: Paxton Leroux and Eric Shewell were suspended for Friday’s game from penalties assessed in Game 3 Thursday. Lakers GM Lee Vitarelli said Leroux was suspended five games for leaving the Lakers bench to join an altercation although the Lakers maintain Leroux was already on the floor. Sheweel was suspended three games for being the third man in to an altercation at the end of the game.... The start of Game 4 was delayed 15 minutes by the late arrival of the referees who were stuck in traffic, according to Lakers president Tim Barrie.