|
MULTIMEDIA
NEW
FEATURE!
Audio
now
available as
MP3 format.
|
After what seemed like an eternal wait the Waxers
finally took to the ice in Markham as the South Division semi-final series with
the Raiders opened Friday night, it was the first time in eight days that the
Waxers played after sweeping the Legionaires in the opening round of the
playoffs.
The Waxers dominated the early going in the
first period but weren't able to convert any of them, several times good
scoring chances yielded nothing when a bad bounce or other unfortunate break
intervened.
The second half of the opening frame was a
totally a different story, it was safe to say the worst ten minutes the blue
and white have showed us for a long, long time. To be fair it might be expected
that the Waxers might have shown some game rust after the extended layoff. The
Raiders capitalized and took a 2-0 lead after one complete.
Markham started the second period a man short
but anybody walking back into the arena from an intermission break wouldn't
know unless they counted the skaters on the ice, despite being shorthanded the
Waxers forced the play into Wexford territory and came up with their first of
the night. Kevin Cribari
lead the rush over the Raider blueline, powering past a Wexford defender to set
in motion a variety of chances that eventually halved the deficit to 2-1. Kevin
Tompkins who did some nice work down low in the corner to maintain
possession combined with Cribari in setting up Andy
Schofield for the shorthanded marker.
Midway through the game the Waxers popped home
two powerplay goals, three minutes apart. Sixteen seconds after the Raiders
were assessed a five minute major, Tompkins fed Jesse
Boucher with a well-timed goalmouth feed, a real pretty play for the
equalizer. Mark Mitchell
also picked up the first of his two assists on the night on the play.
Three minutes later after the Waxer powerplay
got bogged down for a short time, Derek
Doucette from just inside the blueline made a flip pass through a
defender to Steve Nobili
who had done an end run down the right side and got between the defenseman and
the netminder, Nobili then appeared to redirect the pass, perhaps adding a
little more momentum to the puck as he did so past the Raider keeper for the
first Waxer lead of the night. Schofield who had fed Doucette with the initial
pass to start the rush got the second assist on the play.
With exactly 100 seconds left in the period the
Waxers scored a third consecutive powerplay goal, Paul
Robinson out-muscled a Raider defender and flipped home a puck from
very close quarters, Mitchell with the assist.
The back-breaking goal came with just two
seconds left in the second period, with the Waxers attack continuous and
relentless, Mark Menonte
and Jason Duffy setup Adam
Doucette to make it 5-2.
The third period saw the Raiders turn up the
attack a notch and pressured to create several outstanding scoring chances,
only to be denied by Rick Marnon.
With less than nine minutes remaining the Raiders finally scored to make the
remainder of the contest a little more interesting.
In the final minute Adam Doucette fed Patrick
Diotte at the point who then slapped it towards the Raider net, Steve
Kelly in front deflected the puck home to conclude the scoring for the
6-3 final.
Once again the Waxer penalty killing was
outstanding and just as in the first four playoff games prior to this night's
contest the Waxers continue to receive big contributions from the entire lineup
and it showed on the scoresheet as six different Waxers accounted for the goal
scoring.
Game two promises to be a good test for the
Waxers and will be in Scarborough at 7:00pm on Sunday night.
| G A M
E S U M M A R Y |
PERIOD
1
1. Wexford, Katsuras (Martin, Foy), 11:40.
2. Wexford, Petsalis (Faulkner, Whyte), 19:50.
PENALTIES:
Martin Wex (slashing), 1:46; DDoucette Mar (high
sticking), 16:52; DDoucette Mar (slashing), 20:00.
PERIOD
2
3. Markham, Schofield 1 (SH) (Cribari, Tompkins), 1:33;
4. Markham, Boucher 3 (PP) (Tompkins, Mitchell), 8:25.
5. Markham, Nobili 1 (PP) (DDoucette, Schofield), 10:38.
6. Markham, Robinson 2 (PP) (Mitchell), 18:20.
7. Markham, ADoucette 3 (Menonte, Duffy), 19:58.
PENALTIES:
AStoyan Mar (checking from behind minor, game misconduct), 4:19;
Whyte Wex (high sticking major, game misconduct), 8:09; Ball Mar
(holding), 12:01; Martin Wex (holding), 17:21.
PERIOD
3
8. Wexford, Katsuras (PP) (Rossi, Foy), 11:07.
9. Markham, Kelly 2 (Diotte, ADoucette), 19:48.
PENALTIES:
Duffy Mar (roughing after whistle), 3:57; Faulkner Wex (slashing),
8:06; Schofield Mar (dangerous equipment), DDoucette Mar
(misconduct), 9:43; Cribari Mar (roughing), 15:34; Regan Mar
(roughing after whistle), 16:09.
GOALTENDERS:
Markham: Rick Marnon. Wexford: Will Hooper.
|
| SHOTS ON
GOAL |
P1 |
P2 |
P3 |
OT |
FINAL |
| WEXFORD
RAIDERS |
7 |
16 |
20 |
- |
43 |
| MARKHAM
WAXERS |
8 |
15 |
10 |
- |
33 |
|
