Brampton 7 Orangeville 3

In 1961 the Hastings Legionaires trailed the Brampton ABC's 3-0 in the OLA Final. The Peterborough area club ran off four straight wins for the league championship. That is the only time in Jr.A history a team has come from 3-0 down to win. Could the Excelsiors be about to make new history?

They already have. Their win Monday night made them only the second 8th place team to ever take two games off the regular season champion. Oshawa Green Gaels did it in 1976, losing in six to Peterborough Gray-Munros.

Returning to the 21st century, tonight's game had an excellent opening period. Great pace, good efforts, evenly played, with great goaltending. The difference in the period was Josh Agar stopping Jamie Lincoln twice on clean breakaways - he also robbed Brendan Doran in similar fashion. Darren Halls did not miss one on one against Danny Walters. He popped out of the penalty box to pick up a loose ball off a wide shot and waltzed in to score. Halls was converted to the offence for this game and it was a good move as me was Northmen high scorer with 2 points. Orangeville extended its lead to 2-0 when Jamie Kirk buried one past Walters. Brampton got a much needed goal late as Sean Felstead squeezed a shot through Agar's legs. Felstead as been very impressive all series. Shots on goal: Orangeville 16 Brampton 15. Northmen two unsuccessful power plays. Excelsiors 0/1

Second period Daryl Veltman bulged the twine early making it 3-1. Then a remarkable thing happened. Despite being down 3-1 Brampton turned it up a notch and they never let up even though they couldn't score. At one point shots favoured them 14-7 yet it remained 3-1 Orangeville. Finally Scott Carnegie hit goal(his first of three points). A minute later Andy Secore scored. A well earned 3-3 tie. Shots were 18-14 Brampton. Orangeville 0/2 on the power play. The Excelsiors had half a power play which carried over but failed to produce.

It was an excellently officiated game and there were only two calls I disagreed with. Partway into the second Brad MacDonald bumped Jeff Summerfield at the benches. Summerfield retaliated and knocked MacDonald down. Gardonio handed Summerfield a penalty when I thought the play only merited a possession call. Up 3-1 Orangeville had a wonderful opportunity to take a death grip on the game but they squandered it. The other call came late while the Excelsiors were on the power play. Line handed coincidental minors to two players which meant Brampton started the third with a 4 on 3 advantage - a very big difference to 5 on 4. Neither penalty had any bearing on the outcome and they were the only two things I did not like in a near flawless display of officiating.

What can I say about the third period? Never in my life would I have expected to see the Northmen at home in the third period of a playoff game and outshot 22-8! Half of those eight shots came very late when it was all over. Brampton carried their momentum over to the third period and they totally dominated. Chris Campbell nailed his first ever goal approximately five minutes in. A short time later Lindsay Sanderson pulled his goalie, displaying the frustration with his dumbfounded offence. This nearly led to an Excelsior open net goal. Yet they scored on the same possession as Ryan Campbell bounced one home. 5-3 with the smurf Scott Gillingham making it 6-3 a little while later. Sanderson again went to the goalie pulling but tonight it was totally ineffective. Orangeville continued to turn the ball over and Brampton continued to sprint down the floor and either miss open nets or have a desperately scrambling Josh Agar come up with a circus save. Finally the visitors punished them as Felstead put one in before Agar could get halfway to his goal. In frustration the Northmen goalie threw his stick and received a 5 minute major. With less than 9 minutes remaining that killed any chance of late game dramatics. Brampton concentrated on running the clock the whole power play and by the time Orangeville returned to full strength there was so little time left that Sanderson didn't even bother to pull Scott Patterson.

Notes: player of the game, without any question was Jeff Summerfield. I watched him closely and his effort was inspirational. Not only did he blank Nathan Sanderson but he was endlessly battling for loose balls. His leading by example when the club was down 3-1 was one of the keys to keeping them in the game.

On a more worrisome note, Nathan Sanderson fell awkwardly at centre with a few minutes remaining and limped off the floor. Let's hope it's nothing serious as he has been the best the Northmen had had to offer this series.