If the Panthers didn’t understand the coach’s message about the importance of staying out of the penalty box, they do now, as the Stouffville Spirit’s only two goals of the game came on first-period power plays. Pickering took six penalties in the first to Stouffville’s two. Those goals were all the Spirit needed for a 2-1 win over Pickering and pushed the series to Game 6 in Pickering on Tuesday afternoon. By contrast, the Panther power play has gone cold as they were 0/6 in this game.
Once Stouffville took the lead, they flipped the script on Pickering and held them off the scoresheet until Matt Indovina scored his 5th playoff goal with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker with two minutes remaining. The Panthers came close a few times in the final minutes, but lost 2-1. They also lost the services of Marco Costante in the final minute of play, arguably their top defenseman. We’ll see how serious that injury is and whether it is a factor in the remainder of the series.
Anthony Sciere took the loss in net for Pickering, making 31 saves. It is still astounding that Sciere and the Panthers have held the Spirit to only one even strength goal to this point in the series. Game 6 is back in the Den Tuesday afternoon, March 31st at 3:30 pm.
