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Excelsior's
rise to the Occasion
After suffering another close defeat in Brampton
on Wednesday night the boys from Brampton had their
backs against the wall as they traveled to Peterborough
on Thursday night. Peterborough had an opportunity
to take a commanding 3-1 series lead on their home
floor but the Excelsior's knew that they could come
out on top if they played a disciplined full 60
minutes.
Phil Sanderson threw a bomb to a
streaking Patrick Merrill less than two minutes
into the game, and Merrill beat O'Toole to give
the Excelsior's first blood. The Excelsior's killed
off the first Peterborough power-play opportunity,
but John Grant managed to even up the game with
just over 6 minutes to go in the period. Brampton's
Aaron Wilson would capitalize on the first Excelsior
power-play of the night (netting his 200th career
goal), but after Brampton's failed equipment check
on O'Toole, Peterborough would answer with a power-play
marker of their own. Peterborough went on the power-play
once again with less than 2 minutes to go in the
period but it was Brampton that would capitalize
on the opportunity as Mike Carnegie would get the
loose ball up to an open Brodie Merrill who gave
the Excelsior's the 3-2 margin to end the first.
The second period would be Brampton's.
Phil Sanderson found Aaron Wilson coming out of
the penalty box just 30 seconds into the frame and
Wilson made no mistake to get his second of the
night. Two minutes later Colin Doyle held on to
the ball for a solid 20 seconds before turning and
blasting a shot home. Aaron Wilson would complete
his hat-trick on the power-play as Colin Doyle found
him wide open on the right side. With a 6-2 lead
Brampton would get called for holding and 20 seconds
later they would get an additional slashing call
against them. The Excelsior defense, Anthony Cosmo
and the Brampton penalty killers fought hard and
just 5 seconds after both penalties were over Captain
Dan Teat found himself out front and potted another
Brampton goal. Cam Woods would get open on the ensuing
face-off and would extend the Brampton lead to 6.
Peterborough would challenge Cosmo's equipment after
the goal, but once again Cosmo was cleared. The
period would end 8-2.
Brampton would survive 2 Peterborough
power-plays in the first half of the final frame
before Josh Sanderson would extend the lead with
a power-play goal beating Collins as he was rushing
back to the net. The game would take an unfortunate
turn at this point. Peterborough seemed content
to concede the game to Brampton and went on a mission
to try and inflict damage on the floor instead of
the scoreboard. Sandy Chapman seemed to be Peterborough's
main target as he was jumped several times but the
Brampton squad remained stoic in their attempts
to try and keep this a lacrosse game. Both teams
would add another goal before the game was over
and Paul Dawson had finally had enough of the abuse
being dished out to the Excelsior's and it was Peterborough's
Lindsay Plunkett who answered the call, but didn't
for Dawson's right hand. The game would end with
the Excelsior's up 10-3 which ties the best of seven
series at 2 games a piece. A pivotal game 5 will
take place in Brampton Saturday night at 7:00. Doors
open at 5:30.
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