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Peewee Knights come up short in OMHA finals

March 23, 2016   ·   0 Comments

Ryan Dimitroff’s two goals were not enough for the peewee A NobleKing Knights to overtake the Grimsby Kings, who won the OMHA championship at Nobleton Arena Friday night.

By Jake Courtepatte
A pair of converted penalty shots was not enough to keep the peewee A NobleKing Knights alive in the OMHA final series with the Grimsby Kings.
Grimsby completed a sweep of the Knights Friday evening at Nobleton Arena, in front of a packed house full of fans of both sides. After dropping the first two games of the series in a home-and-away last week by scores of 2-1 and 4-2 respectively, the Knights were backed against the wall in a do-or-die situation.
After a solid goaltending battle through most of the first 10 minutes, the road team got on the board first with a backhand that just squeaked through the pads of goaltender Matthew Maniatis in the final minute of the first. Neither team created much offence over the first half of the second, before NobleKing’s Ryan Dimitroff opened the game up in dramatic fashion.
The speedy forward made his way past the Grimsby defenders while shorthanded, hauled down for a penalty shot. He made two moves to outwait the goaltender, firing into the open net to tie the score at one.
On the next shift, Dimitroff was hauled down again, for his second penalty shot in under a minute. He entered the offensive zone with speed and promptly pulled an almost identical move, once again fooling the Grimsby tender.
Thirty seconds later, Michael Termini beat a Grimsby defenceman to a dumped-out puck, cutting in front to put his team up by two – the third NobleKing shorthanded goal on the same penalty kill.
A brief timeout and a goalie change seemed to revitalize the Grimsby players, who made it a 3-2 game by the end of the second after a ton of whacks at the puck right in front of Maniatis. They tied the game with eight minutes to go, and took the lead back 30 seconds later.
The Knights came close to tying the game on a handful of occasions, including a wraparound attempt by Owen Clark that fooled the goalie but went in just after a quick whistle. The final buzzer beat them to the punch however, as the Kings and their fans celebrated their provincial championship.
This was the first time all season the peewees have lost three games in a row. They celebrated an international victory in January by winning the Silver Stick tournament.
The Juvenile Schomberg Red Wings remain the only team in King in OMHA contention. They sit two games down to the Cayuga Stars in their final series.

         

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