Wild needs double overtime to finish off Richmond Hill
By Bill Rea

Goalie Craig Byford was up to the task of stopping a penalty shot from Richmond Hill's Craig Peacock in last Wednesday's match.

The green uniforms and St. Patrick's Day might have had something to do with it, or maybe it was simply a case that the better team won.

The result is the King Wild advanced to the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League finals Saturday, but they needed double overtime to finish off the Richmond Hill Rams.

The 5-4 victory gave the Wild the best-of-seven series in six games.

The issued was settled after 59 seconds of the second extra frame, and Jordan Gidaro was the man of the hour, although he was quick to praise the eyesight of linemate Sean Pollard who set him up.

"I was creeping in," he said. "Pollard had great vision. He saw me, fed me the puck and I put it in."

This was the first and only time the Wild led Saturday's match. They spent much of the afternoon battling back from deficits. The score was even at 1-1 at the end of the first period and 2-2 after two. Things were looking grim for the side halfway through the third, as they trailed 4-2. But Pollard and Gidaro combined to nicely set up Brendon Farrugia on the power play to launch the comeback, and Captain Mike Bodley finished off a goal-mouth scramble with the tying marker with less than three minutes on the clock. Marc Zanette drew the assist on the play.

Wild defenceman Mark Trost has not seen much action for the team this year, having undergone treatment for cancer. But he was on the bench with his mates Saturday and joined them in accepting the congratulations from the defeated Rams.

Matt Marchese and Pollard bagged the first two markers for the Wild, with Alex Pozdrowski and Gidaro drawing assists.

There was no scoring in the first overtime period, but enough scoring chances to elevate heart rates throughout the arena.

But Head Coach Paul Hampton seemed perfectly calm at the end.

"The calmer I stay, the calmer the guys stay," he explained.

Had a seventh game been needed, it would have been Sunday afternoon in Nobleton. "I was worried it was going to ruin another NASCAR Sunday for me," he quipped as he left the ice Saturday.

The clubs split the first two games of the series last weekend, and the Rams took the lead with a 4-3 win on their home ice last Tuesday. Gidaro, Pollard and Zanette provided the goals for their mates in this outing, with Pollard and Bodley notching assists.

"We just couldn't put the puck away," Bodley commented later. "We had a lot of chances. The goalie was really good."

Hampton agreed his men didn't want for chances. "The goalie just stood on his head," he observed.

"Just one of those nights," he added. "It happens, but we certainly worked hard."

It was a different story last Wednesday, as the Wild discovered the scoring formula, and made the evening pretty miserable for the Rams. The side had a bit of a let-down late in the second and early in the third periods, and combined it with a couple of unnecessary penalties, meaning the 5-3 final score was closer than it really should have been. Dan Douglas put an end to any come-back hopes the Rams had with a short-handed goal with less than five minutes left in the third.

Pollard led the rest of the scoring attack with a pair of goals (one on the power play) and an assist. Farrugia and Zanette collected the other two goals. Gidaro had two assists, and other single assists were notched by Farrugia, John Sturino, Bodley, Ryan Aikins, Kyle Baulne and Zanette.

Bodley came very close to a goal of his own late in the second, but he hit the cross bar.

"If we could try to play three periods like we played the first, it would be no contest with this team," Hampton remarked. "We can't seem to stay focused."

"We got the bounces tonight, unlike last night," Zanette said, adding the play of Wild goalie Craig Byford was "phenomenal."

Friday's match in Richmond Hill was another case of the Wild taking command, and then allowing a couple of goals to make things a bit closer than they needed to be. King led 5-0 at the end of two periods, and the game ended with the score 5-2.

Gidaro, Baulne and Aikins each scored powerplay goals, while Pollard and Farrugia rounded out the scoring. Douglas and Bodley each got a pair of assists, while singles were contributed by Sturino, Farrugia, Gidaro, Marc Fortin and Zanette.

Things got a little chippy in the late going, and there were a couple of cases where Ram players seemed to be trying to bait Zanette into throwing some punches. The King forward kept his cool, however, and let the opponents go to the penalty box. Hampton called it a case of realizing the team is more important.

"I think we outdisciplined them," he commented later. "The keep resorting to stupid things."

Byford came through for the cause once again, and Hampton knew it.

"He was solid," the coach said, adding he couldn't be blamed for either goal. The second shot that beat him was "a rocket."

Byford admitted he was a little nervous with the way things were developing in the third, "but we still had a good lead."

He also said the coach has clearly stated he wants to stick with his hot hands.

"If I want to get the next start, I've just got to come up big," he observed.

The next task facing the Wild is a really tough one. They have to go up against the Bradford Rattlers for the division championship. The Wild easily finished in first place in the regular season standings with 78 points. They lost just five games, and only one of those was in regulation time. King was in second place in the standings, 23 points back. The sides faced each other seven times over the campaign, and the Wild only prevailed in one of them (in October), and that had to be settled in a shoot-out.

"It's going to be a tough series, there's no doubt about it," Hampton said. "Everybody's going to have to be on top of their game."

The series was slated to get started last night (Tuesday) in Bradford, but the results of that match weren't known at press time.

The second game is set for tomorrow (Thursday) night at Bob Fallis Arena in Bradford, starting at 8:30 p.m. The Wild will host the next two games at the arena in Nobleton; Friday at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

The fifth game, if necessary, will be in Bradford Sunday, starting at 7:30 p.m.; the sixth game will be in Nobleton Tuesday (March 27), starting at 8:30 p.m.; and game seven will be next Thursday (March 29) at Bob Fallis Arena, starting at 8:30 p.m.