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Peterborough
unable to defeat Excelsior's
Brampton went into Peterborough
on Thursday night with a 4 point lead in the standings
and a perfect 2-0 record against the defending champions,
but the Lakers have been surging as of late so everyone
in attendance (well over 3000) knew they were in
for a battle. Both teams marched onto the floor
at Memorial centre in Peterborough with all the
intensity you expect from two teams that have had
classic wars in the Ontario championships for the
past 6 years.
It would be a penalty filled affair.
Just four minutes into the game, the Brampton penalty
box was filled with 3 players whilst Peterborough
had two on their side. John Grant took advantage
of the 3 on 3 situation and opened up the scoring
for Peterborough 5 minutes in. Josh Sanderson answered
back while the teams were 4 on 4, but Peterborough
regained the lead less than a minute later. Cue
a lot more penalties as Peterborough continued to
run Cosmo and tempers continued to flare, but with
1 second remaining in the period, Josh was able
to add his second of the night to knot the game
at 2.
Peterborough scored the first marker
in the second period (once again in a 4 on 4 situation),
but Blaine Manning would score his first of the
night blasting one in from up top while Brampton
had a 4 on 3 advantage. New-comer Ryan Campbell
would give the Excelsiors their first lead of the
night 6 minutes into the period on a nice cross-crease
feed from Aaron Wilson. After a couple more penalties,
including a fight between Dan Dawson and Kyle Laverty
(which showed them to the showers) Josh would add
his third of the night on the power-play, but Peterborough
answered with a power-play goal of their own and
added another goal before the period was out to
bring the score back to even.
Once again, Peterborough drew first
blood in the third period 6 minutes in, but Jeff
Shattler answered 2 minutes later. Brampton would
then retake the lead on the power-play just after
halfway through the frame, but that lead only lasted
43 seconds. With under 5 minutes to go, and the
game still tied Pat O'Toole threw a long bomb down
to a waiting John Grant who made no mistake and
gave Peterborough the lead once again, and they
added to it 30 seconds later as John Grant once
again broke free to give Peterborough a 2 goal lead.
During the celebration, Shawn Evans took a high
sticking penalty, and Brampton's Blaine Manning
made him pay for it on the ensuing power-play. Brampton
won the face-off and called a time-out with 2 minutes
to go in the game. With the Brampton net empty,
a perfect display of passing began and ended as
Dan Teat found the back of the net to tie it up
once again. The game would head to overtime.
Less than 3 minutes into the 4th
period, Sean Holmes would grab a loose ball, streak
down the floor and beat O'Toole to give Brampton
the edge, but with just over 3 minutes remaining,
Pat O'Toole would once again find John Grant at
the other side of the arena to tie the game up once
again. The game would end 10-10.
With this result Brampton's record
against Peterborough is set at 2-0-1. Brampton requires
only one more victory in their remaining 3 games
to lock up first place for the 2008 season. The
first chance they have to accomplish this is Saturday
night in Brampton against the visiting St. Regis
Indians at 7:00 PM.
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