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| Mike Teeter and the Brooklin Redmen won Game 4 9-7 to stay alive in the series. (Photo: Darryl Smart) |
The Brooklin Redmen staved off
elimination with a 9-7 win over the Six Nations Chiefs in Game 4 of
the MSL semifinals Saturday night behind a 52-save effort from Zach
Higgins and four transition goals. Dan Lintner had 2 goals
and an assist, Shawn Williams a goal and 3 assists and John
Lafontaine a goal and 2 assists for the Redmen. Vaughn Harris
led the Chiefs with 2 goals and 4 assists, Cody Jamieson had a
hat trick, Jeff Shattler a goal and 3 assists and Colin
Doyle 4 assists.
The Redmen led 2-1 after the first
period and stretched the lead to 4-1 by the 5-minute mark of the
second. To that point, Brooklin had one power play goal, one
shorthanded goal, one 4-on-4 goal and one regular strength goal. The
Chiefs then went on a 5-goal run in just over five minutes,
culminated by Jamieson's natural hat trick in 2:38. Dan Ball
stopped the run by ripping home a sub shot in transition 22 seconds
after Jamieson's third and Lintner's second tied it up 6-6 heading
into the third period.
Kasey Beirnes tapped home a Shattler
pass at 7:03 to put Six Nations back in front. Lafontaine scored on a
breakaway with a beautiful dip and dunk to tie things back up. The
winning goal came with just under four minutes to play when Shayne
Jackson ripped a hard outside shot that bounced high in the air off
of goalie Brandon Miller and landed just behind the goal line.
A minute later the Redmen took advantage of the Chiefs pressing to
find Mike Triolo alone behind everyone and the big forward put
it home for an insurance marker.
“It was a big confidence boost for us
because we had lost seven straight playoff games to them over the
last two seasons, some of which we played great and still lost,”
said Redmen assistant coach Paul Stewart about the game. He
acknowledged that Brooklin is still in a tough situation being down
3-1 in games but said they won't give up. “It's an uphill battle
for sure. Beating the defending champs four in a row to advance is
not impossible but we have no delusions about what we are facing,”
Stewart said. “We are going into Monday night knowing we can win
and we will throw everything we have at them to keep the series
alive.”
Lafontaine said the Redmen planned to
push the pace, believing it would give them the best chance to win.
“That was our goal tonight was to get pushing and try to keep some
of their offensive guys on defence,” Lafontaine said. “I think we
did a pretty good job of pushing it, trying to keep the pace up, and
it definitely did help us win tonight.” The key for them now,
Lafontaine added, is to keep it up. “We've got to stay motivated,
stay pumped up, keep running.”
Six Nations head coach Rich Kilgour
said his team didn't come to play with the same aggressiveness they'd
shown earlier in the series. “The first three games we really came
out with an attitude: we're bigger, we're stronger and we're going to
push you guys around,” Kilgour said. “Tonight I think we came out
a little flat, then we turned it on then it was like, 'I think we did
enough to win' and shut it down again. If you don't come to play 60
minutes in this league you're going to end up on the wrong side of
the scoreboard. The only thing I want to change is their attitude and
their preparation to play. Not so much once they get out there but
come to the arena like they did the first three games with a burr
under the saddle.”
Game 5 is Monday at 8pm at Whitby's
Iroquois Park Sports Centre.
