The Milton Menace pulled off a late-game comeback in the third period to bring themselves one win away from moving on to the next round of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) playoffs.
Game four of the first-round series was held at the Milton Memorial Arena. The Menace went into the game up 2-1 in the series.
Pickering opened the scoring in the first period, with Aron Jessli continuing his good start. Ben Pickell added a second goal for the Panthers to put Pickering up 2-0 after 20-minutes of action.
The run kept going for the Panthers as Ethan Lindsay scored at the 3:11 to put the bad guys up 3-0. Two minutes later, Lucas Littlejohn made it a four goal game. It was looking rough for the Menace, but they never stopped trying. Jared Coccimiglio would get one back on the powerplay, with captain Owen Forester and Lucas Buzziol getting assists. While Pickering would score a fifth goal, Aidan Hughes would keep it a three-goal game to end the second period. His goal was assisted by Buzziol, who had a good game.
The third period was where the magic happened. Magic at the Madhouse, even. Aidan Hughes scored his second goal of the game, assisted by Forester and Coccimiglio. With less than seven minutes left in the game, Forester made it 5-4 on the powerplay, getting help from Buzziol and Hughes. With less than five minutes left, the Menace tied it. Cole Semeniuk scored with assists by Bradley Banach and Myles Perry. One minute and thirty seconds later, the Menace found themselves up for the first time in the game. Perry buried the game winner; Justin O’Donnell and Nicholas Wereha got the assists. The Menace pulled off the four-goal third period and they won 6-5.
Will Goumas was the starter for the Menace, he faced 17 shots, stopping 13 of them. He was then pulled after 25:48 of action. Forbes Anderson came in in relief and stopped six of seven shots.
The Menace are up 3-1 in the series. Game five is set for Friday, March 17th at the Pickering Recreation Complex. Puck-drop will be at 7:00 p.m.
The rest of the schedule for the series (if needed):
- *Game #6 – Sunday, March 19th – 6:30 p.m. – Pickering at Milton
- *Game #7 – Tuesday, March 21th – 3:30 p.m. – Milton at Pickering
*Depending on series outcome
Milton Menace home tickets for this OJHL season can be found here.
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