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Brampton Back
on Top
Peterborough came
to Brampton on Sunday night to play the first of
two games at the Powerade Centre that have a mountain
load of playoff implications. There was a three
way tie at the top of the standings between the
two battling clubs and Six Nations, but Brampton
knew going in that these were must win games if
they wanted a chance to earn one of the first round
byes.
Both teams came
with their 'A' rosters in place and the war began.
Peterborough would draw first blood after killing
off the first penalty of the night and the crowd
had to be amazed at the defensive effort from both
teams. Dan Dawson capitalized on the power-play
in the final two minutes of the period to send the
teams to the break in a 1 - 1 tie.
The Excelsiors
came out firing in the second period. Josh Sanderson
would score on the first possession to give Brampton
the lead. Dan Dawson would get his second of the
night 3 minutes later. Josh would get another past
the Peterborough keeper diving through the crease
on the power-play and Dan Teat would follow that
up with another less than 30 seconds later. Teat
would score his second of the night on the power-play
at the midway point of the period to give the Excelsiors
a 5 point lead. Peterborough would come back later
in the period to score 3 goals, one 4 on 4, one
at even strength, and then a power-play goal in
the last 30 seconds to end the period 6-4.
Peterborough kept
coming with another power-play goal in the opening
minute to draw to with in one, but Brampton was
not going to sit back. Colin Doyle regained the
Brampton edge two minutes later, and then Brodie
Merrill scored his first of the night just after
the 5 minute mark as extra insurance. Peterborough
would score yet another power-play goal mid-way
through to creep back to within 2, and despite stellar
goaltending all night from Pat Campbell squeezed
another one through with just over 2 minutes to
go. On the next Laker possession Brodie Merrill
was able to pick off a pass and streaked down the
floor to bury his second of the night and help seal
the Brampton victory. Pat Campbell would make a
few more amazing saves in the end to secure the
9-7 final.
Brampton now sits
atop the MSL standings but have only one game remaining.
If they are to get a first round bye they will have
to continue to play this strong as the Peterborough
Lakers return to the Powerade Centre on July 16th
for an 8:00 start to end the regular season. A win
will mean 1st place overall, but anything less could
mean 3rd and a date with the first round.
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