Archive

Hornets earn two shutouts, drop one in overtime for 2–1 series lead over Midland

March 13, 2013   ·   0 Comments

The Alliston Hornets took two and gave one back. That’s pretty much where they stand in the league finals after a 5 – 4 overtime loss to opponent Midland Flyers at home Sunday night.

After completely dominating Midland in games one and two by scores of 6 – 0 and 7 – 0, the Hornet’s were unable to force Midland to the edge in game three.

Hornet’s defenseman Zack Byblow said his team simply wasn’t good enough in the loss.

“We just had a pretty rough go, took some dumb penalties late in the game when we had to be a little more disciplined,” he said. “We also had some bodies go down. We just didn’t play very well.”

And that pretty much sums up the game for the Hornets, who racked up 44 penalty minutes, leading to three power play goals for Midland including the game tying goal with three minutes remaining in the third.

Hornets leading scorer Mike Campeau and forward Dakota Brooks were both ejected from the game on Sunday night after receiving game misconducts. The team also lost another top scorer earlier in the week when Randy Cox went down with an injury in game two.

After the game, Midland Flyers head coach Edward Geringer said his team is aware of the level of play they will have to reach to match the Hornets in the series.

“I’m glad that our guys were rewarded for refocusing their efforts and being able to play within our system and within our structure,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s such a thing in momentum in this case, just because the Hornet’s are an excellent team, but they’ve lost games and playoff series’ before and they’ve been down three games to one with 30 seconds left and have won the series.

“Their veterans play like veterans and their rookies play like veterans and they’ve got great goaltending and coaching, so if we’re going to have success moving forward, we’re going to have to work twice as hard as we even did tonight and let the hockey gods make the decisions that they make.”

Despite the rough outing in game three, the Hornets still hold the series lead and own the fact that they handily defeated their opponent twice already.

Byblow was clear in the game plan for game four.

“We’ve got to come out flying.”

Games one and two

Earlier in the week the Hornets manhandled the Flyers shutting them out 6 – 0 in game one and 7 – 0 in game two.

Robbie Aslop earned the shutout in game one with 27 saves, while Tyler Brindle backstopped the Hornets in game two turning away all 22 shots.

After game one, Aslop said he was happy with his team was playing in front of him.

“They played great – put up six goals. I can’t ask for much more,” he said. “I felt good too. I just kind of tried to keep myself calm in the first period and just take it one save at a time and then as the game went on, I just felt more comfortable.”

Hornets head coach Sandy McCarthy said he wants both of his goalies to be ready for action at all times.

“I think throughout the playoffs both our goalies have played well so far. Robbie, in his last couple games, was a bit shaky with his rebounds. I wanted to get him in the series right away. I think we need both of our goalies playing top notch hockey,” he said. “It hurt us last year only have the one guy.”

Campeau has continued to be the offensive catalyst for the Hornets in the finals, with six goals and four assists in three games.

After game one, McCarthy made an interesting statement about the playoffs and how quickly things can change in the playoffs.

“They got some different players back through the season and they’ve got some really good players. I’ve been trying to tell these guys you can’t take anything for granted. Every game you’ve got to try and keep them focused. Tonight it was 6 – 0, but you never know what could happen next game if you don’t come prepared to play.”

The Hornets will return home for game five on Friday night.

By Jeff Doner

Readers Comments (0)