Greater Metro Junior Hockey League
North Elimination Game
Knights of Meaford 6 South Muskoka Shield 1
Knights 6 Shield 1
Tyler Arsenault scored 3 times for the Knights who eliminated South Muskoka and earned the right to advance to the North Quarterfinals against the regular season champion Bradford Rattlers.
The game was scoreless until Alec Hernandez opened the scoring for Meaford 4 minutes in to the 2nd period.
Arsenault followed with his first marker on the night late in the 2nd period to stake the Knights to a 2-0 lead heading to the 3rd period.
South Muskoka, who eliminated Ottawa the night before, refused to buckle and Allan Saar scored 4 minutes into the 3rd period to make it a 1 goal game
Midway through the third, Tyson Gudaitis restored the Knights 2 goal lead, and then finally Meaford exploded for 3 markers in the final 5 minutes, the first from Matthew Giefert and then two more from Arsenault to complete the hat trick.
Allan Menary posted the victory for the Knights and he'll have to be sharp in the best of 3 North Quarterfinal if Meaford hopes to upset the Rattlers who went 35-6-0 & 1 on the season.
Arsenault believes the Knights can challenge the Rattlers especially with the last two head-to-head meetings being just 2 goal margins in favor of Bradford.
Game 1 in the series is scheduled for Friday night at the Meaford & St Vincent Community Centre.
Game 2 will be Sunday night at 7:30 pm in Bradford.
If a third & deciding game in the series is needed, it will be Monday night, again in Bradford.
1st Period
No goals scored.
2nd Period
04:25 Meaford Alec Hernandez (Francis Moore, Ricards Ralfs Gorobecs)
17:30 Meaford Tyler Arsenault (Connor Long, Callum Queenan)
3rd Period
04:46 South Muskoka Allan Saar (Nathan Compere, Samuel Rychvalsky)
10:08 Meaford Tyson Gudaitis (Eli Kinsman, Emil Lovig Larsen)
15:05 Meaford Matthew Giefert (Connor Long, Callum Queenan)
15:37 Meaford Tyler Arsenault (Tyson Gudaitis)
18:23 Meaford Tyler Arsenault (Matthew Giefert, Connor Long)
