With their backs against the wall, the Mount Forest Patriots were able to hold off the brooms and force a game 5 against the Stayner Siskins tonight.
Trailing 3-0 in the series heading into tonight, it was all or nothing for the Pats, and through some ups-and-downs in a wild and crazy affair, they got by Stayner to stay alive. The first period started off very slow with many stoppages of play, and Stayner opened the scoring on the PP as Jordan Taylor went high glove on David Lobsinger. Minutes later, Brock Philips joined a 2-on-1 rush and received a great feed from Troy Weber, and Philips made no mistake on a backhand deke. But Stayner would take a 2-1 lead shortly thereafter, as captain Lucas Jeffery scored a shorty late to put the Siskins ahead after one. Defender Carson Gandy was ejected for a bad hit from behind, and the Siskins were down a player going forward.
The second became a wild frame, with penalties, bad hits, plenty of animosity, and great goals. Joey Visconti scored a PP rocket 30 seconds in to increase the Stayner lead to 3-1, but Riley Cribbin answered quickly to cut the lead to 3-2. Mount Forest would tie the game 3-3 as Brendon Aitken crashed the crease and slid one by Marcus Semiao. Then, Mount Forest lost Klayton Hoelscher as he got his own checking from behind penalty and ejection, and the coaching staff were furious and ended up taking a bench minor, giving Stayner a long 5-on-3. But Lobsinger would shut the door and the Pats killed it off, and that was the turning point, setting up a pivotal final period tied at 3.
Mount Forest came out flying in the third and with their best goal scorer gone, star centre Blair Butchart took it upon himself to take over the game. He scored to take a 4-3 lead, the first of the night for the Pats, early on before Stayner tied it on a PPG from Ben Skuce. Then, Butchart went to work. He got a fortunate bounce as a pass from behind the goal line went off Semiao's skate and in, making it 5-4. With 2:30 left, he scored off a brilliant feed from Brock Philips, and that would be enough as the Patriots held off a 6-on-5 and a 6-on-4, after a late penalty, to hold on and force a game 5. Head coach Trent McClement says his team were resilient and banded together after the 5-on-3.
"When we went down two there, you know we were upset and a little undisciplined and put our guys in a bad spot, and they banded together and got behind us coaches and killed it off. Lobby (David Lobsinger) was great like he has been all year, and that was definitely the turning point I think."
Butchart, who was the key cog offensively and missing his two regular linemates in Hoelscher, and Michael Stefanelli, who didn't play because of injury concerns, had an incredible game. He says it was an adjustment losing both regular linemates, but the team banded together and pulled out a huge win.
"Our line with myself, Klayton and Stef has been good all year, but we have so many guys that can step up, and Cribs (Riley Cribbin) made some awesome plays out there, and it makes it easy for me when he just finds you in space. I thought we played hard and managed to force a game 5 that we wanted, and we think maybe we can do what we did last year against Mitchell."
Game 5 goes Thursday at 8:10 in Stayner. Mount Forest will try once again to stave off elimination.