Eagles Push Ice to Brink of Elimination

Article by I. Schoonderbeek/Media by R. Mansfield

The Clarington Eagles are now one win away from the Eastern Conference finals. The raptors badly outshot the Georgina Ice 41-16 in front of a big Easter Sunday crowd at Garnet B. Rickard Arena, enroute to a 4-2 game three victory.

Defenseman Ryan Hall opened the scoring for Clarington midway through the first period from Kolby Poulin and Adam Klaas with a powerplay goal. The smooth blueliner showed great patience in delaying his delivery to the net, making sure the perfect screen was in place before snapping a well-placed point shot high over the goalkeeper’s glove.

Georgina would pull even late in the period when Ice captain Mike McCullough entered the Clarington zone with speed before dishing to PJHL leading playoff goal scorer Ryan Cutler for his 15th of the playoffs.

Despite a dominant effort in the second period that saw the Eagles outshoot the Ice by an 11-2 margin, the game would remain knotted at two until early in the third.

Less than 30 seconds into the final frame, the Eagles got the break they were looking for. Shifty forward Trevor Urquhart weaved his way into the Georgina zone before snapping a blocker side shot on goal. The Ice goaltender made the blocker save. However, a defender mistakenly batted the rebound out of the air into the Georgina net to give the Eagles the go-head goal.

Less than two minutes later, Clarington would extend their lead. Jordan Shaw, who has had the hot hand in the goal scoring department in the series for the Eagles, finished off a textbook offensive zone cycle from Urquhart and Kyle Smith with his eighth of the post-season.

Cutler would pull Georgina back within one with his second of the game on the powerplay just past the eight-minute mark of the period.

However, any hope of an Ice comeback was snuffed out two-minutes later when Shaw scored his second of the contest, snapping in a rebound from the edge of the crease. The big winger now has five goals through the first three games of this series, and has been playing with a physical edge, using his 220 lb frame to his advantage. “Jordan has been playing incredible,” said Urquhart. “His forecheck creates so many turnovers that me and Smitty can jump on to get the play going in the o-zone.”

After restoring their two-goal cushion, the Eagles settled back in to defensive mode for the final 10-minutes. They kept pucks deep in the Georgina end and contained any attacks to the outside of their zone.

“You learn from the last series,” said head coach Dean Baumhauer. “Against Lakefield we were up 2-0 with two shutouts, feeling great about ourselves, and then we came back home and stunk the joint out. We were going to get Georgina’s best tonight. I thought we were the better team today and deserved to get the win. We didn’t fluke this one out, we outshot them drastically. It’s huge to go up 3-0. It would have been a new series had they come in here and won this game. Hopefully we can go up there this week and finish things off in their barn. We just have to stay disciplined. We’re a tough team to beat five-on-five.”

Game fours are typically the toughest games to win. Based on how the Eagles have played over the last two contests, it would be hard the bet against them Tuesday night when they will be looking the close out the series in Georgina.

At this point, the Clarington game plan should be no secret. “We’re going to do the same thing Tuesday night,” said Urquhart. “Get pucks deep, attack down low and create turnovers, get pucks to the net and outshoot them like we did tonight. When we play our game, they can’t handle us. Everyone is buying in to Dean’s system. We’re all working for each other and holding each other accountable.”

So far, fans have been treated to three outstanding hockey games in the series. The first elimination game Tuesday night should be no different. Game time for those making the trip to the Ice Palace is 7:30 pm.