Lakers win South Division with thrilling OT win against Rattlers
By Jon Yaneff, Sports Reporter
February 24th, 2009 at 10:01PM November 30th, 2011 6:30PM
The South Division all came down to one game and it couldn’t have been any better between the Innisfil Lakers and the Bradford Rattlers.
It came down to the shootout, as Lakers’ forward Caleb Lister beat Bradford goalie Spencer Bacon. The thrilling goal gave the Lakers a 6-5 win in front of more than 400 fans at the Innisfil Recreational Complex Friday.
Bradford replaced their Swedish goalie Carl Ostlund with Bacon after Innisfil scored twice in the final two minutes, as forwards Manny Lopez and Alaiksei Kulikouskiy beat Ostlund.
In the second forward Jonathan Dew made the score 3-0, before Bradford snapped back with forward Chris Tumba and defenceman Alex Polischuk each scoring.
Three minutes into the third, defenceman Anthony Gambacorta scored a power-play marker to give Innisfil a 4-2 lead. Bradford forward Sam Odell and Dew each traded goals, before the Rattlers tied the game up with forward Boris Stukalin and defenceman Denis Boblenkov scoring to send it into overtime.
Goaltender Geoffrey Sadjadi played phenomenally in the last five minutes of the third period, overtime and the shootout, as he preserved his 14th win of the season.
The Lakers were also set to play the Deseronto Storm Sunday, but it was canceled because of weather conditions and the Storm didn’t want to risk driving to Innisfil. This was the second time this game had been canceled, but this time it won’t be rescheduled because of the playoffs. Also, Deseronto (29-10-3) doesn’t move up in the standings if they win and Innisfil (35-6-1) wouldn’t move down if they lose. Though the Laker brass wanted to give their fans another good game before the playoffs, instead they handed out free tickets to either Game 1 or Game 3 of their GMHL South Division quarter-final, best-of-five series against the Ontario Lightning Rams (13-30).
Game 1 starts in Innisfil Friday at 7:30 p.m. Game 2 then goes to the Elvis Stojko Arena in Richmond Hill Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Game 3 is back in Innisfil Sunday at 2:30 p.m. If necessary Game 4 will be in Richmond Hill March 3 at 8:30 p.m., while Game 5 would be back in Innisfil March 4 at 2:30 p.m.
Innisfil handily won all four regular season games against the Rams, outscoring them 32-10.
“All year long when we’ve played the Rams they’ve battled hard, but when it comes to power plays and puck movement, we usually control the game,†said Lakers’ Head Coach Shane Hicke.
Players to Watch
Innisfil Lakers: In only 20 games, forward Jonathan Dew had 67 points (37 goals, 30 assists). Against the Rams in four games the Innisfil native had eight goals and six assists for 14 points.
Ontario Lightning Rams: Forward Alex Derlis led the team with 49 points (22 goals, 27 assists) in 29 recorded games from the GMHL Web site. He always came to play against the Lakers with four goals and an assist during those four games.
Injury report: Forward Brian Davidson (knee injury) was hurt in the Lakers’ 6-0 win at Minden Feb. 15. The Lakers may let him rest the entire Rams series just to be certain of his health. Forward Max Douglas got butt-ended by a Bradford player, while he was being hit to the boards and he internally bruised the inside of his abdomen area and had some contusions to his ribs. He may miss the Rams series as well with a timeline of seven to 10 days for his recovery.