Mariners were in must-win scenario
Summerside led series 3-1 heading into Game 5
Depending on what happened in Summerside Tuesday evening, the Yarmouth Jr. A Mariners are either still in the playoffs, or their season has ended.
The Yarmouth Mariners were in a must-win situation when they faced off against the Summerside Western Capitals on March 26, after this newspaper's deadline. (See our website Saltwire.com for the update.)
After splitting the first weekend of MHL Eastlink South division semi-final hockey playoff action, the Capitals won both games in Yarmouth this past weekend. With those wins, Summerside led the bestof-seven series over the defending league champions 3-1.
A win for the Caps on Tuesday would have wrapped up the series and put Summerside in the division final. A win for the Mariners would have pushed the series to a Game 6 back in Yarmouth on Thursday, March 28.
Summerside opened the scoring quickly during Game 4 with a goal by Liam Duquette just 31 seconds into the first period.
From then on, there was no scoring by either team until the third period, although the Caps came close to increasing their lead towards the end of the second period when the puck hit the Mariners' post, rather than the open net, after a failed glove save.
Summerside extended its lead to 2-0 early in the third period on a goal by Paul Hughes.
With 5:36 remaining in the third period, Yarmouth's Ethan Hoffe stole the puck from the Capitals and exercised patience waiting until Caps' goalie
Drew Sim was fully extended on the ice before taking his opportunity to deliver the puck, unassisted, to the back of the net. The goal brought much excitement inside the Mariners Centre with Yarmouth now trailing 2-1.
With just under four minutes remaining in the game, however, the Mariners fans let the officials know of their displeasure when there was no call for goalie interference after Capitals player, Robbie Rutledge, who had gotten tangled on the ice in the net with Mariners goalie Thomas Fontaine, threw the goalie's stick away from the net and Fontaine.
The no-call resulted in a loud, prolonged chorus of boos from the fans, who felt Yarmouth should have gone onto the powerplay.
Later, with 1:57 remaining in the game, the Mariners pulled Fontaine from the net for the extra attacker but Summerside dashed the home team's hopes of tying the game when Caps player Jonah MacDonald scored on Yarmouth's empty net with 49 seconds remaining in the game to put Summerside up 3-1.
There were 1,405 people in attendance for the game. The shots on goal during Game 4 were 36 for Summerside and 26 for Yarmouth, which was a closer spread than the previous night when the Capitals had outshot the Mariners 52 to 33 in a 4-1 Game 3 win.
The two teams had been separated by one goal until 3:43 remaining in that game, when Summerside increased its lead to 3-1. The Mariners again pulled their goalie. Summerside's last goal in Game 3 came on the empty net.
In net that night, Fontaine had put on a stellar performance, making 47 saves on 50 shots.
During the regular season, Summerside and Yarmouth had gone 4-4 in their matchups.