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April 26, 2008 12:13 AM
Dryden puts scare into Canes in Dudley Hewitt semifinal
By: John Cudmore, Staff Writer
It’s winner take all.
And you can take that to the bank.
That is the prospect facing the Newmarket Hurricanes and Oakville Blades after the host side edged the Dryden Ice Dogs 2-1 in an overtime thriller Friday night in a Dudley Hewitt Cup semifinal game at the Ray Twinney Complex in Newmarket.
Brian Soso, who only a few minutes earlier sat in the penalty box for roughing as the Ice Dogs broke a scoreless tie, backhanded a rebound off the backboard past Dryden netminder Graeme Harrington to atone for his misdeed and send the Newmarket side to the final of the four-team central Canada title match Saturday night against the undefeated Oakville Blades. Game time is 8 p.m.
Soso, who led the Hurricanes this season with 241 penalty minutes but also scored a team-best 33 goals, had been the poster boy for good behaviour and productivity for four games in the Dudley Hewitt Cup. But he received an extra two-minute penalty for a scrum at the Dryden net late in the third period, leading to Dryden’s only goal with just 3:37 to play in the third period. It was Soso’s first penalty of the tournament.
The timing couldn’t have been worse as the Ice Dogs’ Chad Liley finally swept a loose puck under Hurricanes’ netminder Wayne Savage during a wild scramble for the go-ahead goal and Dryden appeared poised to pull off a stunning upset.
“We needed a good bounce,” said Soso, who, along with Andrew Buck, drew an assist on Jeff Henderson’s goal at 19:09 to send the sudden-death match to overtime. “I wasn’t worried about being the goat, but it would have been tough going out that way knowing we’d worked as hard as we could. I wanted to do as much as I could after that penalty.”
The winner of Saturday night’s clash qualifies for the Canadian Junior A Hockey League’s Royal Bank Cup starting May 3 in Cornwall.
Trailing 1-0 with an extra attacker on the ice, the Hurricanes came up with the equalizer when Buck’s centring pass found Jeff Henderson uncovered in front of the Ice Dogs net for a one-timer.
Then, in overtime, Adam Martinez ripped a shot wide of the Dryden net from the left wing but Soso was charging to the goal to slip a backhand past a sprawling Harrington. Henderson also drew an assist on the play.
“At the start of overtime, (Soso) came over to the bench and told the boys he would make up for it,” said head coach Brian Perrin.
It was a far different outcome from the 7-1 trouncing the Hurricanes laid on Dryden Wednesday night in the round-robin portion of the tournament.
But the Superior International Junior Hockey League champs were having none of that in the semifinal rematch. Especially netminder Harrington who faced 32 shots in all while his teammates volleyed 27 at an equally sharp Wayne Savage.
The graduating junior, who was pulled in the round-robin game against Newmarket, was confident his side would rebound.
“I knew we had more to give since the first time we played them,” he said, still red-eyed after emerging from the Ice Dogs’ dressing room. “With a couple of bounces our way and not theirs, it could have gone our way. But this was an experience not to forget. It was terrific to be here.”
It was a night in which Newmarket carried the play save for a few random patches but could not break through with a goal.
“Your biggest fear going into a game after a 7-1 win is that you can easily lose the one-goal game,” said Perrin. “That’s the type of adversity our team needed to face. We started to panic and go individual for a while. Everyone wants to be the hero.”
On this night at least, the Hurricanes were rattled but shook it off in the nick of time.
“We knew it would be a garbage goal to win it,” said Savage. “We just couldn’t get the bounces in front of their net.”
Now it is the Hurricanes’ turn to rebound from a sound round-robin loss in order to move onward. But it is a one-game pressure cooker situation with the loser cashing out for the season.
“Oakville has a lot more experience at it than we have,” said Perrin of the Blades playoff run. “They’re strong and consistent. They don’t get rattled.”
The Blades, who are the Ontario Provincial Jr. A Hockey League champions, scored four unanswered goals Thursday night to defeat the Hurricanes and secure a berth to the final, bypassing the Friday night semifinal. For Newmarket, it will be the fifth game in as many days.
“Oakville beat us in the round-robin and they kinda deserved it after their third period,” said Savage. “We just have to give it our all and no holds barred. It would have been nice to have a day off, but we just have to look at it as a tune-up.”