Minto Bantam Reps are tied at 5 points with Lakefield forcing a sixth and deciding game.
Game #3 went Friday night in Harriston and both goalies showed early that goals were going to be hard to come by, shutting things down in the first period. Early in the second period Brendon Aitken jumped on a rebound and put Minto ahead one nothing. Assists went to Devin Williams and Keaton Ross. Then late in the period Lakefield got on the board beating Brett Cook with a hard shot. The boys would go to the dressing room tied at one. Early in the third Denver Hill scored on a nice passing play from Ryan Binkle and Cole Leslie to put Minto in front for the second. From that point on Cook would close the door and give Minto a 2 – 1 win and a 2 – 1 lead in the series.
Game #4 went Saturday night in Lakefield and the home team let it be known early that they werent going down without a fight and took the lead midway through the first period. Early in the second Lakefield would take a 2 – 0 lead and it didn’t look good for Minto but Lakefield took a penalty which sparked Minto’s offence and Cole Leslie managed to bang home a rebound from Devin Williams and Ryan Binkle. Then just a minut later Denver Hill picked up a lose puck and roofed it to tie things up at two. Minto then took a pentalty of their own and Lakefield would again take a one goal lead. Late in the period Minto would take another penalty but on this one they would steal a lose puck and Derrick Riff would feed Devin Williams on a beautiful give and go passing play, and Devin buried it to give Minto a short handed goal. This strange second period just wouldn’t end as Lakefield would again apply pressure and score to give them a 4 – 3 lead heading to the third period. Early in the third Ryan Binkle would tie things up from Cole Leslie and that’s the way it would end as the 10 minute over time would solve nothing so the game would end in a tie at 4 – 4 and Minto lead the series 5 points to 3 in a 6 point series.
Game #5 went Sunday in Clifford and the long bus ride didn’t seem to bother Lakefield as they scored in the first minute when Minto failed to clear their zone. Lakefield would add another before the end of the first to go up 2 – 0. The second period would prove no better for Minto as they just couldn’t get things going and Lakefield would add a third goal to go up 3 – 0 heading to the third. Minto came out strong in third full of emotion and finally Ryan Binkle popped in a rebound on the powerplay from Cole Leslie and Brett Cowan. That was all the scoring that Minto could muster and Lakefield added one more for good measure to take the game 4 – 1 and tie the series at 5 points each.
Game six (6) in the series went Monday night at 8:00pm in Lakfield. Be sure to check out www.mintominorhockey.ca for more details.