NEWS

(pictured - #23 Jordan Merante of the St. Michael's Buzzers celebrates the SW Conference Double-Overtime Winning Goal - photo credit: Andy Corneau/OJHL Images)
St. Michael's Buzzers forward Jordan Merante surpassed his regular season goal total, notching his fourth of the post-season, with the biggest goal of his four year OJHL career.  After taking the initial shot, Merante waded into the scrum and banged home the 4-3, double-overtime, game-winning goal that captured the South-West Conference title for his club with the game six victory over the North York Rangers.

In yet another battle dominated by the continuous stellar netminder of St. Michael's Adrian Ignagni and North York's Jason Pucciarelli, the Buzzers became the first road team to win a game in the series, doing so at the most opportune of times.  And unlike many of the previous five, penalty-filled affairs, just two minor penalties were called in the game, including a penalty-free game from the Buzzers.

A tentative first period saw both teams fail to score a goal with the visitors outshooting the home side 10-7.  Period two saw a more concerted effort from the Rangers, registering 12 shots on net and beating Ignagni twice for a 2-0 lead.  After late-season acquisition Franco Loparco potted his fourth of the playoffs, the high-flying Carpino-Valadao-Kalk line made it 2-0 with Carpino scoring the goal.  Shots after two were 21-19 in favour of St. Mike's.

An intermission pep-talk seemed to work wonders as the Buzzers came out firing on all cylinders in period three.  First defenceman Cody Doiron netted his second just over a minute into the frame, followed two minutes later by Buzzers leading scorer Shane Conacher with his 14th to tie the game.  A few minutes later it was OJHL Top Prospect Award runner-up Troy Josephs recording his fifth and the tide had officially turned, with the Rangers now facing elimination.  North York continued to press, looking for the equalizer and just over the halfway mark, captain Dana Tenenbaum notched his second goal of the season and second in as many games to knot the score at three and send the series to overtime once again.

The first overtime period would solve nothing and all in attendance began to have visions of the triple-overtime marathon that was played in game three of the series.  However, it was not to be on this night as Merante played the hero, sending the Buzzers to the OJHL Championship Series for the first time since winning back-to-back Buckland Cup titles in 2005 and 2006.

Final shots in the contest were 58-51 in favour of the North York Rangers and the three stars of the game were Pucciarelli, Tenenbaum and Merante respectively.

The Buzzers now await the winner of the North-East Conference Final that sees the Newmarket Hurricanes with a 3-2 series lead over the Kingston Voyageurs with game six taking place Saturday night at the Ray Twinney Complex in Newmarket with puck drop at 7:30pm.  The Buzzers will be the top-ranked seed for the OJHL Championship Series and will host game one of the series next week.

For a full game summary, please CLICK HERE.

South-West Conference Championship

Game One          North York 3 @ St. Michael’s 2   (North York leads series 1-0)
Game Two          St. Michael’s 4 @ North York 1   (Series tied 1-1)
Game Three       North York 4 @ St. Michael’s 5 (3OT) (St. Michael's leads series 2-1)
Game Four         St. Michael’s 3 @ North York 5 (Series tied 2-2)
Game Five          North York 2 @ St. Michael’s 5 (St. Michael's leads series 3-2)
Game Six             St. Michael’s 4 @ North York 3 (2OT) (St. Michael's wins series 4-2)