Jan 21, 2018 | jclarke | 984 views
Lavigne Nets Two, Otters Take Game 1
The MBRP Major Midget Otters began their first round series of the OMHA playoffs Saturday night, facing off against longtime rivals South Muskoka. As was predicted, Game 1 was exceedingly close, with both teams trading chances until Huntsville finally found the back of the net in overtime.
The first two periods of Saturday night's contest belonged to Huntsville defenseman Nick Lavigne and Otter's goaltender Tyler Miller. While the play see-sawed back and forth, Lavigne made plays at both ends of the ice, eventually hammering home the opening tally midway through the first period to give Huntsville the early lead. Assists on the goal went to forwards Ethan Murdy and Nick Coleman.
South Muskoka's goaltender turned aside several great Huntsville scoring chances in the second period. Not to be outdone, Miller put on a performance of his own, including an enormous breakaway save to maintain the lead. Minutes later following a scramble in front of the net the puck deflected to Lavigne in the slot, who buried his second of the game to make it 2-0. With the help of a couple goalposts Huntsville took the lead into intermission.
The third period saw the Majors lose momentum and squander their two goal lead in a matter of minutes. A South Muskoka shot from the point found its way through traffic and past a screened Miller to cut Huntsville's lead to one. South Muskoka continued to pressure and capitalized off a turnover to tie the game late in the third period. With just under two minutes to play Huntsville was handed a four minute penalty and was forced to enter overtime shorthanded.
An excellent penalty kill by the Otters back end kept Huntsville alive long enough to be granted a power play of their own. With the man advantage the Majors were able to generate numerous scoring chances, the best coming when captain Connor White wired a shot from the top of the circle just off the crossbar. However, the Bears wouldn't budge and were able to hang on to bring themselves back to even strength.
Just as it appeared the game would be a stalemate Huntsville forwards Russel Jones and Kyler Campbell gained possession of the puck in South Muskoka's zone. Great work down low resulted in rookie defenseman Adam Dupuis being left alone in the slot. Dupuis made no mistake, firing a shot off the inside post and ending the game with just over a minute left in the extra frame.
The Majors now make the short trip to Bracebridge on Sunday for what will be another extremely close game. Puck drop for Game 2 is scheduled for 5:30pm.