With the rain pouring and the temperature
plunging, the Jack McVicar Minor Atom AE Petes rolled into Stouffville and evened
up the series with the Clippers in a late evening match up on Wednesday night
(Mar. 1).
The Petes looked a little sluggish in the opening period as they fought to wear off their road legs, but as has been the theme of the series, they controlled much of the play and the couple of scoring chances that Stouffville had were thwarted by the solid play of Bradley Montgomery in goal.
A quick pep talk at the first intermission seemed to light the fire and the Petes came out rolling to start the second period. A continued pressure in the offensive zone finally paid off at the mid-point of the period when Caeden Kent managed to bang in a rebound off a point shot from Tye Hill. Less than two minutes later, Sawyer Spencley’s hard back check caused a neutral zone turnover that allowed Cole Scanlan to transition quickly and feed a pass to Griff Coupland who buried it to put the Petes up 2-0. Stouffville managed to tighten the score with 18 seconds left in the period, scoring just as a Petes penalty expired.
The Petes opened up some breathing room on the opening shift of the third period when Coupland got his second of the night off a rebound from a Rylan Scott point shot. The majority of the third saw the Petes keep the puck down low in Stouffville’s zone and the Clipper’s were unable to generate much pressure until late in the period when a tough bounce resulted in a Stouffville scoring chance that hit Montgomery in the helmet and ricocheted out of play. The last push came with Stouffville’s goalie pulled in the final minutes, but the Petes strong defense held fast and Stouffville struggled to gain the Petes zone and weren’t able to generate any further scoring chances.
With the 3-1 win, the Petes have tied the series up at 3 points each and will hope to keep the momentum flowing when they host the Clippers on Saturday (Mar. 4) at 3:30 at the Kinsmen.