It was a weekend of edge of your seat hockey as the Kent MInor Bantam Cobras eliminated the Belle River Canadiens with 3 straight overtime victories. The series opened with 4 games in 4 straight days. The team was defeated in the opening contest 3-1 but the Cobras would bounce back to capture the next 6 points and eliminate the #1 ranked Canadiens.
In the opening match on Thursday the Cobras led 1-0 well into the second period after a goal by Brody Fraleigh assisted by Martin Boughner and Zach McKinlay-Hultgren. Unfortunately the boys gave up 3 unanswered goals and lost the first 2 points of the series. Connor O’Donohue took the loss in net.
On Friday back home, it was the Owen Lemieux show!!! He repeatedly turned away scoring chance after scoring chance and frustrated the entire Canadien offense. Regulation time solved absolutely nothing ending in a 0-0 draw. At 6:48 of the OT frame Caleb Tryon buried a rebound off of the point shot of Will McCracken for sudden victory. The series was now tied 2 points each.
On Saturday back in Belle River the Cobras had a great start jumping to a 3-0 lead. With the goalie pulled the Canadiens were able to complete a comeback and tie the match with 32 seconds left and force overtime. The Canadiens took an early OT penalty and the Cobras capitalized as McKinlay-Hultgren tipped a point shot from Reid Goodburn to take the second straight sudden victory. They would now lead the series 4 points to 2. Other goal scorers were Martin Boughner (2) and Cole Tetreault. Assists went to Ian Campbell, McKinlay-Hultgren, and Caley Whiteye. Owen Lemieux had another strong game in net.
On Sunday in Tilbury, it would turn out to be a third straight OT game as the Canadiens would take their turn at blowing a 3-0 lead. Boughner started the scoring in the second period on a goal set up by Brody Fraleigh. The Cobras cut the lead to one at 8:41 of the 3rd period on a goal by Fraleigh and assisted by Boughner. Less than 1 minute later Caley Whiteye blasted a slapshot past the Belle River netminder (assisted by McKinlay-Hultgren) to notch the game 3-3. Here we go AGAIN...OT! It was a storybook ending as Whiteye released a seeing-eye wrist shot over a screening Ian Campbell at 4:42 of OT to capture the 6 point series. Connor O’Donohue kept great focus and shut the door on the Canadiens the second half of the game.
Congratulations Cobras!!
The boys will next compete with the winner of the Windsor/Tecumseh series to determine the Bluewater OMHA representative to travel east.