Feb 13, 2015 | pwtcblack | 308 views
Black Flags Fall 4-2 to West Lorne To Open Playoffs
It was a game of bounces that just didn’t go the Mooretown
Jr. Flags way as they skated to a hard fought 4-2 loss to open the playoffs.
With the regular season and tournaments in the rear view mirror the Mooretown Jr. Flags Black set their sights on grabbing one of the top two spots after the playoff round robin is over. Mooretown would face a tough task as they opened against the second place West Lorne Comets at home. It would be full hands on deck to start the post season and the Flags looked sharp after a shaky first shift. The Black Flags and Comets would take turns pinning each other in the offensive end with Mooretown spending a little more time on the offence. Neither team would score as Mooretown would out shoot West Lorne 6-4 in the opening 10 minutes. Mooretown would seem to keep the press on in the second and garner some chances but it would be West Lorne who broke the scoreless tie at the 4:50 mark as a player would get behind the d and fight off the back check of Colton Williamson to fire one past Colin Gladwish to make it 1-0. Mooretown would go right back to work and continued to get chances but were unable to bury them. Mooretown would face a tough challenge as Maddie Mesko raced after a puck on an icing and gave a push to a player against the end boards. The player would go down and Maddie would be given a 5 minute penalty and a game misconduct for a Major Cross checking. With 4:27 left in the second. Braeden Hunt would serve the 5 minutes for Maddie and the Jr. Flags would have to kill off the entire penalty. West Lorne would go to the box 2 minutes later for slashing and the teams would play 4 on 4. Neither team was able to garner many chances with the extra open ice. Just as the Comets penalty expired West Lorne would get another penalty to Too Many Men with 42.8 seconds left to put the teams back at 4 on 4 for the remainder of the second. The score would remain 1-0 as the Black Flags outshot West Lorne 13-8. Mooretown and West Lorne would start the third 4 on 4 for 27 seconds and then Mooretown would get a brief power play for just 15 seconds. As the teams returned to 5 on 5 Mooretown would finally find a way to beat the West Lorne goalie as MacKenzie Lumley picked up a pass from Ryan Nicholson and fire it home to tie the game at 1 3:40 in to the third. It looked like the Black Flags would looking at some of their third period magic again. But West Lorne would respond exactly 2 minutes later to go back up 2-1. Mooretown would respond in kind just 25 seconds after that as Ryan Nicholson fired one home with an assist to Colton Williamson to tie the game at 2. Mooretown would press again but West Lorne capitalized on their chances and regained the lead with 7:03 remaining. Mooretown continued to miss on good scoring chances and West Lorne would get the insurance marker with 1:38 left to play making it 4-2. Braeden Hunt would get a penalty of his own with 55 seconds left after getting hit hard into the boards and would take a West Lorne player with him. Mooretown would pull the goalie but could not score. With the Goalie pulled Colton Williamson had to race back and knock a puck away from the empty net just as it got to the crease. Mooretown would not score and would fall 4-2. West Lorne would out shoot Mooretown 11-6 in the third for game totals of 25 from Mooretown 23 for West Lorne. Overall the Black Flags played a solid game with lots of scoring chances and a good team effort. Sometimes the small mistakes impact the outcome and the team will just have to find the scoring touch earlier to make those mistakes less important. The game was everything it should have been against 2 good teams. Up next a trip to Wallaceburg to take on Wallaceburg #2 A week from Saturday. The team will be without Maddie Mesko who received a 2 game suspension for a cross checking major and a game misconduct.