Over 900 people came to Southwood Arena for Game 1 of the PJHL Doherty Quarterfinals between the Highway 59 rivals Navy Vets and Norwich Merchants ....
and they were treated to a classic battle !!!
the game was fast paced with plenty of hitting and tremendous goaltending ...
after a scoreless 1st period the Merchants took a 2-1 lead into the 3rd period ... the game went end-to-end in the 3rd with both teams having chances for Norwich to put the game away and for the Vets to tie it up ...
but then in the last minute with Vets goalie Keaghan Brett on the bench for an extra attacker Vets overager Dylan Wettlaufer who has been the hottest player in the division the last month batted in a rebound from in front of the net to tie the game 2-2 and send it to Overtime ...
then just 1:55 into the overtime period Navy Vets veteran overager Austin Richardson made a terrific shot converting a pass from Warren Gorman on a 2-on-1 break to give the Vets the exciting 3-2 win and send most of the fans home happy !!
Jared Prekup had the 1st Navy Vets goal ...
Game #2 goes on Saturday night down in Norwich ...
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The Navy Vets lost 3-1 down in Norwich on Saturday night as the Merchants tied the QF series 1-1 ...
Kyle Walker scored on the powerplay for the Vets in the 1st period to open the scoring but Norwich scored 3 times in the 2nd period and that is the way it stayed ...
Game #3 goes on Tuesday night at Southwood Arena @ 7:45pm ...
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Dylan Wettlaufer scored just over 8 minutes into Overtime to give the Navy Vets a 4-3 victory over Norwich Merchants at Southwood Arena on Tuesday night in Game#3 of their QF series to take a 2-1 lead in the series ...
The Vets took a 2-0 lead after the 1st period on goals by Kurtis Christo and Josh Wright ...
Norwich tied it with 2 quick goals midway thru the 2nd period but the Vets took the lead again late in the period on a goal by Justin Vandendool ...
Norwich tied it early in the 3rd period and both team had chances in the latter half of the final period but were stymied by goaltenders Mike Harrison of the Vets and Tyler Gubesch of the Merchants ...
The Navy Vets started the extra period with a penalty but did a good job killing the penalty which seemed to give them a spark and then started to force the play which led to the game winning heroics by Wettlaufer !!!
Game #4 goes on Friday night in Norwich ...
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The Navy Vets took a 6-2 lead into the 3rd period and held on for a 7-5 win in Norwich on Friday night to take a 3-1 QF series lead ...
Kyle Walker led the Vets with 2 goals and 1 assist ... Matt Zilke also had 2 goals ... Dylan Wettlaufer had 1 goal and 1 assist ... Troy Vandenbussche and Jared Prekup with an empty-netter got the other Vets goals ...
Mike Harrison faced 30 shots in the Vets net ...
the Vets will look to win their 1st playoff round and advance to the 2nd round for the 1st time since 2009 when Game#5 goes on Saturday night at Southwood Arena ...
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Austin Sine entered the Navy Vets history books as a playoff hero when he scored 3:39 into the 2nd OT period to give the Vets a thrilling 3-2 victory and a 4-1 series win over rival Norwich Merchants at Southwood Arena on Saturday night ...
the Vets move on to the semifinals for the 1st time since the 2010 season when they had a 1st round bye ...
it is their 1st playoffs series win since the 2009 playoffs when they beat New Hamburg in the 1st Round ...
Norwich had taken a 1-0 lead into the 3rd period ... but Justin Elms on the powerplay and then Kurtis Christo shorthanded scored within 2 minutes midway thru the 3rd period to give the Vets the lead ...but with their goalie pulled and on the bench for an extra attacker the Merchants tied the game with 39 seconds left to force OT ...
the teams threw all caution to the wind and went end to end in the 1st OT period ... forcing the goalies (Keaghan Brett of the Vets and Tyler Gubesch of the Merchants) to make several outstanding saves to keep the game alive ...
that set the stage for Sine's heroics in the 2nd OT period ...
it was the 3rd overtime game of the series which was another classic playoffs series in the long history of the 2 Oxford County rivals ...
the Vets will now wait to find out their Semifinal opponent ...
