Round 1 Game 4: Generals make electric comeback and hoist the win in overtime
Oshawa, Ont. – The Oshawa Generals and Barrie Colts met Thursday evening at the Sadlon Arena for game four of the series where the Gens came back from a 3-1 slip and pushed to overtime for the 4-3 win. The series now sits at 3-1 in favour of Oshawa and the two teams will meet tomorrow evening at the Tribute Communities Centre for a match-up that you will not want to miss.
This evening the Colts played goaltender Sam Hillebrandt who had a stellar performance, making 52 saves from 56 shots. Generals Jacob Oster stopped 34 of 37 and the game-winning heroes tonight were Connor Lockhart and Beckett Sennecke with the most important goals of the game.
The Barrie Colts opened the scoring when Kyle Morey grabbed his first of the playoffs seven minutes into the game. With a walk around the Generals’ defence and a swift backhand to forehand switch, he sent it past Oster stick-side for a 1-0 lead.
Beau Jelsma secured the second goal of the night and his third of the series with a snappy wrist shot under Oster’s glove. With lots of time and space, the Colts’ captain took advantage and crept in until he had the perfect lane to shoot, which sent Barrie up by two.
Just past the six-minute mark into the second, Zackary Sandhu got his first goal as a General and split the Colts’ lead in half with a perfect snipe top shelf over Hillebrandt. Lockhart made a smart pass back as the team entered the offensive zone, and Sandhu was in ideal placement for the fire to make it 2-1.
Captain Jelsma got his third point of the night, second goal of the game, and fourth of the playoffs after a hard hit from Connor Punnett which had Jelsma on the ice recovering for a few minutes. Coming out to his next shift hungry for revenge, Jelsma accepted a cross-ice pass from former Gen, Thomas Stewart, and the puck ended up in the back of the net making it 3-1 for the insurance security.
With just over half of the third frame remaining, Luca D’Amato grabbed his first goal of the playoffs after a set up by Sennecke then a snipe from the blue paint to inch the team closer within reach at 3-2.
17 seconds remaining in the regulation time and Oshawa got a huge two-man-advantage opportunity after pulling Oster from the net and a holding call to Colts’ Jack Brauti. Cal Ritchie to Luca Marrelli and Lockhart with the finish after a scramble in front made for a tying-goal hero moment as the period wrapped up 3-3.
The extra frame had just under three minutes left when Ritchie found Dylan Roobroeck up the ice, Roobroeck found Sennecke with the wheels and it was a Sennecke making no mistake on the breakaway when he switched to his backhand and popped it over Hillebrandt for a 4-3 Generals victory.
The boys will return to the TCC tomorrow at 7:35 p.m. for a chance to win the series. Get your tickets now!