NEWS

Mid-season Newmarket Hurricanes acquisition Ryan Johnson proved to be the hero, picking up a rebound of a Jordan Dunin shot and sliding it around a sprawled out Adrian Ignagni for the 4-3 overtime winner to give the ‘Canes a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven OJHL Championship Series.
(pictured - Ryan Johnson of the Newmarket Hurricanes shovels the puck past St. Michael's Buzzers netminder Adrian Ignagni for the overtime-winning goal - photo credit: Brian Watts/OJHL Images)

After five periods of shutout hockey, the Newmarket Hurricanes were seemingly on their way to a game two victory, played on Thursday night at the Ray Twinney Complex in Newmarket.  But then, the St. Michael’s Buzzers broke their scoring drought in a big way, firing home three goals in 2:46 early in the third period to show the ‘Canes what their high-octane offence is capable of providing.

The two teams picked up the pace considerably to start game two with both teams seemingly firing at will.  Shots on goal after the first period of play were 19-12 in favour of the visitors with both goaltenders providing their usual stellar netminding.  Despite being outshot in the period, it was the home side that once again opened the scoring with Ian Farrell notching his fifth of the post-season to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead entering the intermission.

Period two saw Newmarket feed off the momentum of the announced crowd of 696 spectators, perhaps affected slightly due to the inclimate weather and road conditions.  Early in the period, with Buzzers rearguard Cody Doiron off for interference, Elliott Burlon potted his sixth on the power play to give his club a commanding 2-0 lead.  Once again both Ignagni for the Buzzers and Matthew Wintjes for the Hurricanes would hold the fort, with final shots in the period reading 17-12 in favour of the home side.

Failing to score a goal thus far in the series, it was gut-check time for the South-West Conference champion St. Michael’s Buzzers and they would respond in true championship fashion, finally beating Wintjes a minute and a half into the third as Matt Galati fired home his 11th of the playoffs.  Just over two minutes later with Daniel Leavens in the box for elbowing, Troy Josephs buried his third power play goal of the playoffs and things were square at two.  However, the tie was short-lived, as the Buzzers took control off the face-off and Jordan Merante exposed the first chink in Wintjes’ armour with a long-range shot that eluded the netminder.  Buzzers scoring leader Shane Conacher picked up his second assist of the night to give him the overall league scoring lead with 32 points in 18 playoff contests.  Without facing each other in the regular season and no history between the two clubs, emotions were finally starting to surface, leading to a fight between David Savery of the ‘Canes and CJ Shugart of the Buzzers with both being sent to the dressing room early.  Not to be outdone, local product Jeff Murray, celebrating his 18th birthday, would knot the score at three, banging home his first OJHL playoff goal to set the stage for our first extra session of the series.

The extra session saw chances at both ends of the ice with the netminders standing tall once again, until Dunin picked the puck off the sideboards and fired a low, hard snapshot that Ignagni kicked out to Johnson.  Johnson made no mistake, making a quick move to his left around the prone netminder and shoveling home his third of the playoffs for the OT winner.

Final shots in the game were even at 48 with Wintjes turning aside 45 shots and Ignagni 44.  Johnson was named the Player-of-the-Game for his overtime heroics.

Game three in the series will take place on Saturday night, April 13, at the St. Michael’s College School Arena in Toronto with puck drop at 7:30pm.

For a full game summary, please CLICK HERE.

2013 OJHL Championship Series
(*if necessary)
Game #1              Newmarket 1 @ St. Michael’s 0 (Newmarket leads series 1-0)
Game #2              St. Michael’s 3 @ Newmarket 4 (OT) (Newmarket leads series 2-0)
Game #3              Newmarket @ St. Michael’s        April 13, 7:00pm
Game #4              St. Michael’s @ Newmarket        April 15, 7:30pm
Game #5              Newmarket @ St. Michael’s        April 17, 7:00pm*
Game #6              St. Michael’s @ Newmarket        April 19, 7:30pm*
Game #7              Newmarket @ St. Michael’s        April 21, 4:00pm*