Two late goals by the St. Thomas Stars were enough to eliminate the Leamington Flyers from the playoffs.
The Stars took Game 7 2-0 at the Kinsmen Centre, winning the best-of-seven series four games to three. St. Thomas will now face the London Nationals for the GOJHL Western Conference championship.
The first period was scoreless, with the Flyers outshooting the Stars 10-6. Each team had one power play opportunity in the first 20 minutes.
There was still no scoring in the middle frame, with another power play chance for each side. The Flyers led the Stars 21-19 through two periods.
The final period was still without a goal until Jake Robinson finally broke the tie for St. Thomas at 14:11. Leamington goalie Connor Meyerink was pulled for the extra attacker and the Stars' Kevin Hu took advantage with an empty-net goal to seal the win and advance.
Anthony Hurtubise stopped all 26 shots he faced in goal for St. Thomas. Meyerink had 27 saves for Leamington.
The schedule for the conference finals is to be determined, with Game 1 likely at the Western Fair Centre.
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The offence dominated in the Lambeth Lancers' 8-2 win over the Lakeshore Canadiens at the Atlas Tube Centre.
Lambeth takes a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven PJHL Western Conference Finals.
The Lancers got out to three unanswered goals to start the game. Billy Finney opened the scoring with an unassisted goal at 7:52. Jonah Goodman scored the first of two back-to-back goals just 19 seconds later to increase the Lambeth lead to 2-0. He struck again three and a half minutes later. The Canadiens got on the board with a goal by Liam Hogan, but trailed 3-1 at the first intermission.
Lakeshore cut the lead to 3-2 at 2:35 in the second period when Connor Rosaasen lit the lamp. After that, it was all Lancers. Andrew Fletcher scored back-to-back goals to extend the Lambeth lead to 5-2 after 40 minutes.
Andrew Chambers added a goal for the Lancers in the third frame, and Canadiens goalie Erik Morneau was pulled for Colin Tetreault. Lambeth scored two more goals, from Mitchell Jenner and Deon Truong before the end of regulation.
Zach Weir stopped 47 out of 49 shots in net for the Lancers. Morneau and Tetreault combined for 21 saves.
Game 4 of the series is Wednesday night at Lambeth.