The Storm are headed to the Shamrock League Playoff Championship Series after defeating Lucan and Petrolia in back to back road games. The Storm finished atop the Round Robin standings after earning 7 out of a possible 8 points.
Game 3 - Mooretown 5 Lucan 2
The Storm headed to Lucan for a late Wednesday night game looking to keep themselves in contention to advance out of the Round Robin. The Storm started off strong building a 3-0 lead by the midway point of the 2nd Period but penalties and fatigue allowed the Irish to creep to within one early in the 3rd.
Kaymond Turner was called upon to come up with some big saves before the Storm were able to put the game away with a couple late goals by Greg Hay. Nic Ashley, Nolan Farr and Logan Gardner also lit the lamp putting the Storm in the series lead with 5 out of a possible 6 points.
1st Period
07:44 - Ashley (Hay)
06:36 - Gardner (Adams, Taylor)
2nd Period
06:31 - Farr (unassisted)
04:14 - Lucan PP
3rd Period
09:39 - Lucan
01:55 - Hay (Howard, Snary) PP
01:03 - Hay (Farr)
Goaltender - Turner
Game 4 - Mooretown 5 Petrolia 3
With Petrolia having defeated Lucan the day before the Round Robin would come down to the final game with the winner moving on. The Storm were sitting at 5 points with 2 wins and a tie while the Oilers were at 4 points with 1 win and 2 ties. Mooretown would have to come up with a win on the road to gain a berth into the League Championship Series and came through with a gutsy effort in a 5-3 victory. Special teams would play a big part in this game as both teams were hot while on the powerplay with the Storm going 3 for 3 and the Oilers going 3 for 5.
The Storm opened the scoring three minutes into the 1st with the only 5 on 5 goal of the game as Hay snuck home a backhand from Ashley. Farr would put the Storm up by 2 to close out the period with a powerplay marker, assisted by Ashley, with a little over a minute to play. The Oilers grabbed the momentum and rallied in the 2nd scoring on two of their three consecutive powerplay chances to send the teams deadlocked into the 3rd.
With the season coming down to a final 15 minutes the Storm dug deep and grabbed the lead on an early powerplay as Gardner set up Hay at the side of the net. Petrolia battled right back to tie the game on their next powerplay chance to make for an exciting final 10 minutes. The Storm were called for another penalty but held off the Oilers before drawing a penalty to erase the powerplay. With the Storm gaining the tail end of a powerplay themselves Farr took the puck right off an offensive zone faceoff, catching everyone off guard, to snipe in the go ahead goal for Mooretown with 6 minutes to play. The Oilers pulled out all the stops to tie the game back up but Cody Hitchcock kept up his strong play to keep his team in the lead. With the Petrolia net empty Thomas Snary cleared the puck out of the Storm zone up to Hay who sealed the win, the Hat Trick and the Storm's ticket into the League Championship Series where they will face off against the Mt. Brydges Cougars.
1st Period
07:00 - Hay (Ashley)
01:22 - Farr (Ashley) PP
2nd Period
08:48 - Petrolia PP
05:51 - Petrolia PP
3rd Period
14:31 - Hay (Gardner) PP
09:53 - Petrolia PP
06:05 - Farr (unassisted) PP
00:21 - Hay (Snary) EN
Goaltender - Hitchcock