The Saugeen Shores Winterhawks have taken a stranglehold on the WOAA senior hockey North Division championship series.
The Hawks beat Elora Rocks, 7-2 Friday night and have a 3 games to none lead in the best of seven series.
Game four goes Sunday night in Elora.
Winterhawks coach Jim Grieve, says his squad came out flying and played arguably the best period of hockey all season, in the first stanza.
Player of the game was Brent MacDermid with two goals and two assists.
He says he doesn’t know what it is but when he plays Elora he always manages to come away with a couple of points every game.
Other scorers for Saugeen Shores include Shawn Walker, Blake Underwood, Greg Virgo, Darryl McKinnon and Bryan Kazarian who scored a short-handed marker in the third.
Elora coach Kurt Purdy doesn’t know what happened.
He said the team was up for the game before it started but then they came out flat.
Sunday’s game in Elora starts at 7:30 PM.
If a 5th game is necessary it will be played at the Plex in Port Elgin, next Friday, March 30th at 8:30 PM.
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from John Peevers, www.winterhawks.net
The Saugeen Shores Winterhawks are one win away from a return trip to the WOAA Senior AA championships as they defeated the Elora Rocks by a 7-2 score Friday jumping into a 3-0 series lead.
The Hawks continue to get balanced scoring from the top three lines and a quick glance at the top playoff scores tells the tale as three Winterhawks from three different lines sit among the top five scorers.
It was a mere 16 seconds into the game when last year’s playoff MVP, Shawn Walker, scored an unassisted marker setting the tone for a game where the Winterhawks were in total control from the opening faceoff.
Brent MacDermid showed no signs of cooling down following his four-goal outburst in Game 2 as he walked off the right wing boards and rifled a wrist shot off the iron to put the Hawks up by two midway through the first.
The second period saw more of the same as Blake Underwood showed incredible patience before roofing a backhander past Elora’s goalie.
A great individual effort by MacDermid saw the margin mount to 4-0 as the shifty winger beat the goalie with a great move and scored as he was being hauled down by a Rocks defender.
With Hawks defender Josh Jackson off for a double minor, Elora’s power play connected late in the second to make it 4-1. Winterhawks goaltender Andrew Smith was stellar between the pipes all night making some big saves when needed.
Greg Virgo and Darryl McKinnon added to the margin before Bryan Kazarian finished off the scoring with a shorthanded marker for the Hawks as he blasted one from the high slot to make it 7-1.
The Rocks would add a second goal in the dying seconds of the game but it was of little consequence as the teams head to Elora for Game 4 on Sunday with the Hawks carrying a commanding lead.