The Newmarket Hurricanes and the Pickering Panthers are both good hockey teams – they had to be to reach round 3 of the playoffs. The Hurricanes don’t need help to score goals, but they got it from the Panthers in the form of a couple of giveaways in the Panther end and a double minor penalty late in the game. All three led to Newmarket goals.
Gabe Ciarallo (3) took advantage of a nice defensive play by Ty Robar to strip the puck loose at the Hurricane blueline and he broke in alone and made no mistake as the Panthers went up 1-0. Newmarket took advantage of the first Panther giveaway a couple of minutes later, and the puck was behind Anthony Sciere before he had time to react. Kyle Secko made it 2-1 two minutes after that to make it 2-1. Both teams traded goals in the second, with Landon Stevens scoring for the Panthers.
One minute into the third period, another giveaway at the Panther blueline resulted in a Newmarket goal to tie the game 3-3. Jake Mallory scored his 4th of the playoffs at 3:33, but the Hurricanes again tied it up 20 seconds later. With just under three minutes remaining in regulation time, Pickering received a double minor penalty for kneeing. The Panther PK did a great job of blanking Newmarket for the remainder of the period and even generated a couple of terrific short-handed scoring chances, including an unsuccessful breakaway by Charlie Key. With the Panthers still shorthanded, Newmarket scored the game winning goal 37 seconds into the OT, banging in a rebound at the side of the Panther net.
Anthony Sciere made 26 saves in net for the Pickering. Unlike the previous series, this game saw only three penalties for each team, but the last one proved to be a killer for the Panthers.
Pickering will look to tie up the series Monday night at 6:00 pm in Newmarket.
