Blues Tie Up Series Again
With 15 seconds left in the second period, and the Dundas Blues deadlocked at 2-2 with the Grimsby Peach Kings, Dundas native D.J. McConnell buried a pass from Kyle Draper for the winning goal in Game Four of the Junior C Niagara District's east division final Thursday night.
McConnell's second goal of the playoffs sends the Blues back to Grimsby for Friday night's Game Five with a 2-2 series tie.
With the one goal lead, Dundas grinded out the final period, killing four penalties and successfully burying the puck in Grimsby's end late in the game. The deal was sealed with a late empty net goal, and a 4-2 win.
Dundas called a timeout with four and a half minutes left to play. as head coach Dan Caco called for three players to stay up high and two players to play down low, deep in Grimsby's end.
Their goal was to control the puck on the boards and in the corners and burn down the time remaining on the clock. They were successful, giving Grimsby no opportunity to pull their goalie in favour of an extra skater.
With about a minute left, Grimsby finally carried the puck into Dundas' end and their goalie got to the bench. But before fans could count to ten, Kevin Dowling had fired the puck into Grimsby's empty net to cap the win.
Dundas had jumped out to a lead after 15 minutes of the opening period, with an even strength goal from Jesse Healy, assisted by Andrew Clark.
Cole McNeil gave Dundas a 2-0 lead two minutes later on a powerplay, assisted by Healy and B.J. Caco.
Grimsby came back in the second frame, with an even strength goal 37 seconds after the puck dropped.
McNeil was thwarted on a penalty shot ten minutes later.
The Peach Kings tied it up with a powerplay goal in the final two minutes of the second period.
With Dundas still pressuring the Grimsby net, a shot rattled off the post and came to a rest in the goal crease behind the Peach King netminder. But a subsequent scrum didn't move the puck over the line before the whistle stopped play.
Dundas kept the pressure up, winning battles in the corners and along the boards and working hard to get the puck out front to McConnell for the winner eight seconds after the near-goal.
Again one of several hard workers on the ice, Mike Peters picked up two assists on the night - including one on the game winner. Several players stepped up with blocked shots and important clearing shots to help hold Grimsby down to two goals.
The two teams were evenly matched when it came to shots on net. Dundas had 36, Grimsby 34.
Goalie Cam Graham returned after missing the past two games to stop 32 shots for the win. Both goalies came with big saves on several occasions to keep the game close all night.
Dundas won another tight special teams battle, scoring two goals on seven powerplays, while Grimsby found the net once on 10 powerplays.
Game Five is set for Grimsby Friday night at 7:30 p.m., and Game Six will be played at Dundas' J.L. Grightmire Arena on Monday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Note the special night for Game Six, and be sure to make it to Grightmire on Market Street in Dundas for what could prove to be the biggest hockey game in Hamilton so far this season.
Check www.dundasstarnews.com and Dundas Sports Central for updates on tomorrow night's Game Five, and watch for your copy of the Dundas Star News for more - including an introduction to Bob Hatch in the March 20 issue. Mr. Hatch dropped the puck for a ceremonial face-off at Grightmire tonight, and played for the Dundas Junior C team 50 years ago.
