Jr. A Tigers paw aside Hurricanes
Jr. A Tigers paw aside Hurricanes
Sports
February 29, 2008 12:20 AM
Aurora advances to North final
By: John Cudmore, Staff Writer
Consider it another giant step forward for the Aurora Tigers.
For the Newmarket Hurricanes, however, it is a bitter defeat.
The Tigers moved on to the Provincial Jr. A Hockey League’s North Conference final Thursday night as Mike McLaughlin scored the series-clinching goal at 7:46 of overtime to Aurora a 2-1 victory and five-game triumph in the best-of-seven series.
While the Tigers await the winner of a series between the Stouffville Spirit and Huntsville Otters, currently tied at two games apiece, the Hurricanes will have nearly two months between gigs to lick their wounds before serving as hosts for the Dudley Hewitt Cup, the central Canadian championships.
The Tigers are likely to begin a best-of-seven set next Friday night.
The series outcome may have surprised observers who were banking on the fact Newmarket won five of six games between the teams during the regular season. But the real surprise was the ease with which the Tigers ousted their arch-rivals, Game 5 notwithstanding, despite a last-ditch bit of resistance from the Hurricanes.
“It was a dogfight,” said Tigers head coach Jerome Dupont, whose team rebounded from an overtime loss in the series opener to win four in a row. “I thought it was a game worthy of going into overtime. We kept it close and when it’s close, you always have a chance.”
McLaughlin, a dominant force in the faceoff circle all night, drew the puck back to defenceman Matt Thomson in the offensive zone then redirected a Thomson pass past Newmarket netminder Matt Milne for the series-clinching goal.
Earlier in the overtime, the Tigers weathered a Newmarket power play as netminder Aaron Barton turned aside five shots during the two-minute penalty.
“The overtime loss hurt us hard,” said McLaughlin, picking the Game 1 result as a turning point to the series. “We knew then we had to be better.
“I think the fact they’re in the Dudley hurt them, but they came hard and didn’t give up. For us, it is do or die. They have a second chance.”
After a first period, which saw the Tigers claim the only goal by Cody Smith on a power play, the Hurricanes returned to their Game 1 form for most of the rest of the way to give their best all-around effort since the opener. It provided an urgency which had been missing from Newmarket’s game for at least the past two matches.
“We knew it was do-or-die,” said Milne, who turned in a strong effort with 35 saves. “But overall Aurora worked real hard in the series and we had lapses and it cost us.”
There was no quibble from his coach on that point.
“It was too little, too late,” offered Hurricanes head coach Brian Perrin. “It came down to execution and in the end, we didn’t win the faceoff.”
Perrin conceded the 11-day layoff between the regular season and his team’s first-round of playoff action probably was a factor.
“We could see it in practice,” he said. “There just an attitude that we got the bye. We kept harping at our older guys to get ready because the other team was already into the playoffs.
“We put in too much time and effort to get results like that.”
The loss sends the Hurricanes into idle for one month as the league playoffs unfold. The players will reassemble April 1. The Dudley Hewitt dates are April 22 to 26.
One player in question is regular season leading scorer Todd Hosmer who was playing on a broken big toe that may require surgery.
“I don’t know if I’ll be back,” said Hosmer, who finished with a team-high five points in the series.
“You can only look at yourself in the mirror. Aurora worked hard and outworked us.”
Aurora opened the scoring as Smith tapped in a loose puck from a scramble at 16:39 of the first period. Newmarket pulled even when Riley Brand’s screened shot from the point eluded Barton five minutes into the second period.
The Hurricanes had a five-on-three advantage for 64 seconds early in the third period but were unable to capitalize before a penalty wiped out the advantage.