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Golden Hawks stay alive with overtime thriller

February 20, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte
Score, or go home.
Such were the options for the Caledon Golden Hawks in the fifth game of their first-round playoff series with the Huntsville Terriers, facing overtime and the possibility of elimination.
A raucous crowd was on hand to witness the back-and-forth action at Caledon East, though none of the 20 Caledon shots in the first period found the back of the net. Chase Krompocker, who has been excellent since assuming the Caledon crease last month, also held Huntsville off the sheet for a scoreless first 20 minutes.
Another late season addition, Landis Antonic, continued his more than a point-per-game pace by opening the scoring for the Hawks early in the second period. Krompocker was beaten by Huntsville’s George Wood just before the midway point of the game, sending the team’s to the second intermission in a 1-1 tie.
The Hawks were put on their heels when Huntsville took a 2-1 lead with just less than eight minutes to go in the game, using a nice tic-tac-toe passing play to fool Krompocker.
Michael Andrews, however, tied the game less than a minute later after Antonic won the puck to him on an offensive zone draw, sending the game to extra time.
Just a few minutes into the overtime period, Huntsville began to celebrate when they thought a shot off the crossbar hit the back of the net, called no goal after some conferring between the referees.
With the intensity growing, and Caledon attacking, the Huntsville net became suspiciously dislodged one too many times for the referees, who called a penalty shot after a Caledon scoring chance was thwarted by another net off its pegs.
Taking the penalty shot for the Hawks was Marc Simonett, who with 28 goals on the season, buried the game winner to keep the Hawks alive and force a game six.
Huntsville took a commanding hold of the series one night prior on their home ice, a 1-0 goaltending battle between Krompocker and Sparling.
Beaten late in the first before pitching a shutout the rest of the way, Krompocker made a total of 23 stops in the loss.
Now down three games to two, the Hawks are not yet out of the water, needing to win the next two in a row to move to the second round of the PJHL playoffs for just the second time in the organization’s eight-year history.
Action resumes tomorrow (Friday) in Huntsville for game six, and if the Hawks can force a game seven, the series moves back to Caledon East Sunday night for the final contest.
One of two series left to be determined in the Carruthers division, the Penetang Kings were also look to close out the Midland Flyers Wednesday (after press time), leading the series three games to one.
The two top seeded teams, the Stayner Siskins and Alliston Hornets, closed out each of their series over the weekend with a four-game sweep, against the Orillia Terriers and Schomberg Cougars respectively.
For stats, schedules and more information, visit www.jrcgoldenhawks.pointstreaksites.com

Huntsville’s Matt Priest crashes into the boards as Caledon’s Mathiau Young picks up the puck behind the Huntsville net in the Golden Hawks’ 3-2 overtime win over the Terriers Sunday.
Photo by Jake Courtepatte

         

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