Thunder take 2-0 series lead
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The Tillsonburg Thunder have taken a 2-0 series lead with a 6-3 win at home against the Petrolia Squires Sunday evening in the WOAA men’s senior hockey, south division playoffs.
Thunder forward Travis Horvath opened the scoring in game two, just six and half minutes into the first frame, followed by a power play goal from Ryan Gaertner approximately six minutes later.
“I got the second goal on the power play and then I got the fourth one on a five on five – it was just a nice pass by Blais and good work in the corner and I got lucky,” said Gaertner. “I think special teams are always the make or break point come playoff time, and the guys really stepped it up tonight, especially on the penalty kill, with us being down quite a bit in the game.”
Despite a two-goal lead heading into the second period, several penalties, in both the second and third frames proved to be challenging. Thunder head coach Tim Christo said special teams played a big role in Sunday’s win.
“Our penalty killing was fantastic tonight – that was big. We picked up a power play goal, but later on in the stretch it was the penalty kill that stood out for us,” he said referring to the final score.
“In game one we won 6-5, we gave up five goals. You’re not going to win a lot of hockey games if you’re allowing that many goals against,” he added. “We only gave up the three and they got the one on the power play there, so I’m quite happy how we played defensively tonight.”
Tillsonburg forward Adam Wallace said Petrolia is always a tough team to play against, especially during the playoffs.
“They’re a good team, they don’t stop coming all game,” said Wallace. “When we have a couple of lapses, they always seem to capitalize on them so we got to play a complete game.”
Early in the second frame, the Thunder took another two-goal lead with a marker from Kevin Galerno but gave that up late in the period when Petrolia cut their lead to one with a power play goal of their own. With a close score of 3-2 at the beginning of the third period, the Thunder managed to regain their two goal lead with Gaertner’s second marker of the night and later widened that lead with a short-handed goal from Travis Lisabeth and wrapped up the scoring in the dying seconds of the game, with an empty-netter from Adam Vandepoele.
“Tonight we had a little more breathing room. We got a couple of goals early which helped the guys get their feet moving,” added Wallace.
“Benny (Thomas) played really well – he’s been hot for us lately, he’s been bailing us out when we need him and that’s what we need to be able to keep moving on in the playoffs.”
Head coach Tim Christo agreed.
“He stood tall for us again today and made a lot of good saves,” said Christo. “Benny’s playing really well right now, so we’re running with him.”
An overall good group effort and strong defense is what got the job done for the Tillsonburg Thunder Sunday evening.
“It’s playoff time hockey and you know guys want to win when they’re going down and they’re blocking shots, getting their bodies in front of it,” said Christo. “Other than that, the D (defense) is just keeping it simple.
“Our big thing was work hard and get a win tonight because we’re up two games, we’re going there for two,” he added. “If we lose today’s game, we could be in trouble so it was important to get the win today.”
Gaertner is also confident in his team’s ability to rise to the challenge, play under pressure and win important games, like the one on Sunday.
“We’re coming together as a team, and we seem like we’re on the right step and hitting the right point in the peak right now,” said Gaertner. “When we go in firing on all cylinders, working together as a team and playing for the guy next to you, that’s what playoffs are all about.”
Games three and four are in Petrolia, Tuesday and Friday night respectively. The series will then return to Tillsonburg if necessary, for game five on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.