The Listowel Cyclones found themselves in a tough battle tonight entering game 4 of their Midwest Conference semis down 2-1 in the series to the Waterloo Siskins. Despite some bumps along the way tonight, including another key injury, the Cyclones ground out a key 3-2 win in OT to even the series.
In the first, Listowel were dominant, both in terms of puck possession and scoring chances, and they got to work early, cycling well down low and causing havoc in front of Siskins goalie Brett Miller. Caleb Warren opened the scoring just over 8 minutes in, after hard work from Ben VanOoteghem caused a turnover that fell to Chayse Herrfort, who found Warren all alone in the high slot, and Warren did the rest, rifling it past Miller. Just over 10 minutes later, it was Herrfort’s turn, as Cullen Mercer did an excellent job to strip a puck at the half wall that fell to Danny Skinner at the point, who shot quickly and found Herrfort on the doorstep in front for a tip. Listowel left the first up 2-0 after their best period in a couple games.
Waterloo started to press hard in the middle frame, and stretched the ice a lot more and started to tilt the ice a bit in terms of scoring chances. Listowel started slowly getting away from their disciplined game in the first, and two straight penalty kill situations finally caught up to them, as Alex Potter ripped a shot into an open net on the PP after a great feed from Zach Leonard, with captain Alex Cimino getting the other helper. With the score now 2-1, the teams would trade hard hits the rest of the frame, and on what looked like a harmless forecheck, Jakob Lee caught his leg in a funny position on the boards in the Waterloo corner, and crumpled to the ice in pain. Lee was helped off the ice, not putting any weight on his left leg. It will remain to be seen if he is able to suit up on Friday.
Into the third, and Listowel had a number of quality scoring chances to increase their slim lead, but Brett Miller was sensational in the 3rd, stopping Herrfort, Mercer and VanOoteghem point blank a number of times. With under 5 to go, and the puck in the corner of the Listowel zone, the defenders got caught puck watching and didn’t pick up Tyler Dam pinching in, as he received a spectacular feed from Sam Spaedt to tie the score, with Leonard getting the other helper. So, off to the series’ first OT.
Listowel took two penalties in the OT early on, one off a bad decision by Mercer as he cross checked a man behind the play, and the other off a bit of an innocuous call on Mitch Deelstra, who was spilled in the neutral zone in a battle and was called for head contact skating with his man back into the play. Listowel miraculously survived both kills, with Max Wright making a couple of ten bell saves of his own to maintain hope of tying the series. As OT wound down with just 50 seconds left, Brady Anderson stepped to the red line off a turnover and rifled the puck hard into the Siskins end, and the puck ricocheted hard off the end boards behind Miller, right to the bottom off his blocker side faceoff dot. Cyclones captain Caleb Warren, who opened the scoring, would end it, as he was flying in full speed on the forecheck, and one-timed the puck off the end wall bounce high and hard over a dejected Miller to seal the win and a series tie at 2.
Game 5 rolls Friday night in Listowel at 7:30, and will be live on CKNX AM920 with Steve Sabourin and Scott Bridge. Tune in to the OHA This Week pre-game show just after 7, and as always, enjoy the game.
Click here to hear CKNX's call on Caleb Warren's OT game winner, with Steve Sabourin and Ryan Drury:
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