Jiffy Lube Oilers are playoff champions

April 15, 2019

In a wild game that saw all the action in the final three minutes and overtime, the Jiffy Lube Oilers emerged as the playoff champions in the Caledon Senior Hockey League.

Jiffy Lube, which advanced to Monday's final thanks to a tiebreaker after squeaking through the round-robin playoff, edged Heart Lake Insurance 3-2 in overtime at the Caledon East arena. It was a tough loss for Heart Lake, which went undefeated in the round-robin while Jiffy Lube was 3-2.

That concluded the playing portion of the CSHL season. The league will celebrate another good year with its annual banquet Friday, May 3 at Glen Eagle Golf Club, dancing to the sounds of New Hollywood.

Scott Drouillard was the overtime hero for Jiffy Lube when his shot somehow trickled through Heart Lake goaltender Pat DiFrancesco's pads for the winning goal. That ended a goaltending duel between DiFrancesco and Jiffy Lube's Larry Tyndall, who came in as an injury replacement in the round robin and backstopped the Grease Monkeys to the final.

It was quite a finish for Jiffy Lube, a team that lamented its terrible puck-luck all season long. But on this night, a couple of key bounces went their way to pull the championship out of a hat.

When the game wound down to the final three minutes of the third period the score was tied 1-1. By this point, Tyndall had kept the Oilers in the game despite five Heart Lake power plays.

Tim Sinclair, who was the driving force for Heart Lake, had the Insurance Boys goal while Jim Kutchera was the scorer for Jiffy Lube.

With two minutes and 21 seconds left in the third period, Sinclair scored his second goal of the game to give Heart Lake a 2-1 lead. Then Jiffy Lube pulled Tyndall for an extra skater but had to survive a close call to get to overtime.

Heart Lake's Bill Doherty, who set up Sinclair's first goal, managed to get a clear shot at the empty net. The puck slowly slid toward the empty net as the Oilers watched helplessly. At the last second the puck curled and hit the inside post. Somehow it bounced away from the goal line.

The Oilers took the rare lucky bounce and rushed down the ice. Victor Marrelli, the Oilers' leading scorer in both the regular season and the playoffs moved in on DiFrancesco and took a great backhand shot. The puck hit the far post but once again the hockey gods were with Jiffy Lube, as it slid across the goal line, hit the other post and just trickled into the net to tie the score with one-minute left and send the game into overtime.

Then, one minute into overtime, Drouillard crossed the Heart Lake blue line and fired a shot at DiFrancesco, the CSHL's leading goaltender all season. Again, fortune smiled on Jiffy Lube and the puck just slid over the goal line for the win.

Drouillard finished with a goal and an assist while Marrelli had a goal and two helpers. John Pitsadiotis and Rob Ianno had single assists for Jiffy Lube.

In the bronze-medal game, the Grit Bagmen took a 3-2 decision from Yale Industrial Trucks.