Saturday, April 7, 2012

FURY EVEN THE SERIES AT ONE

Press Release

The second game of the 2012 OJHL Championship Series for the OHA Buckland Cup took place on Good Friday night in Whitby at the Iroquois Park Sports Centre and saw a complete reversal from game one the previous night.  The Whitby Fury handed the Stouffville Spirit a 4-2 loss to even the series at one game-a-piece.

Jon Hall of the Stouffville Spirit and Tyler Feaver of the Whitby Fury were in the nets once again and the Spirit would continue their strong play in the early going of period one.  Forward Michael Robinson buried his second of the playoffs just over four minutes into the opening frame, giving the visitors an early 1-0 lead in the game.  The Spirit would outshoot the Fury 9-7 with netminder Jon Hall continuing to shut the door on Whitby.
Fury bench boss Curtis Hodgins must have had some motivational words for his club and made some in-game adjustments as the Fury finally came out flying in period two.  Starting the period on a power play, Sam Gray potted his eighth of the playoffs to knot the score at one.  After some end-to-end action throughout the middle portion of the frame, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds commit Ryan Kirkup notched his second of the playoffs to give Whitby their first lead of the Final.  Just minutes later, Fury sniper Taylor Best netted his team leading ninth goal of the playoffs and suddenly Whitby had a 3-1 lead.  For the first time in the series, we saw a hint of hard-hitting, physical play that marked both of the Conference Finals as Kevin Stevens and Robert Action dropped the gloves and were both ejected from the game.  The Fury outshot the Spirit 17-12 in the period and showed those in attendance why they earned their spot in the Championship Series.
Period three saw another early goal from the Whitby Fury as Matt Davis scored his eighth of the playoffs for a 4-1 Fury lead.  The Spirit started to throw their weight around, attempting to change the complexion and course of the game.  Midway through the game, they would bury their second of the game as defenceman Josh Champman scored his second of the playoffs, cutting the lead to 4-2.  For the second consecutive period the Fury outshot the Spirit, with a final shot tally of 38-30 at the buzzer.

Taylor Best picked up the game's number one star with the game-winning goal and an assist, while Matt Davis picked up star number two with the same totals.  Whitby swept the three stars as Sam Gray's power play marker earned him third star honours.  Netminder Tyler Feaver picked up his league-leading 16th victory of the playoffs, seven more than he earned during the regular season, in front of announced crowd of 892, the club's best total of the season thus far.

For a full game summary, please CLICK HERE.

Game three of the series will be played on Sunday afternoon, April 8 - 2:30pm at the Stouffville Arena.  Be sure to get there early as the place is sure to be a packed house.  See some of the best Junior 'A' action in the entire CJHL before heading home for Easter dinner.  However, if you can't make it in person, be sure to watch the game on OJHL Live, http://ojhl.neulion.com/ojhl/, or follow us at www.ojhl.ca, and on Facebook/Twitter (@OJHLOfficial).


 (Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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