Serious Success
Brampton, ON- The Brampton Steelheads take the series lead after besting the Oshawa Generals, 4-2. The victory also marked several milestones for Steelhead’s captain, Porter Martone, who broke two single-season franchise records.
After Oshawa took game one and Brampton followed through to take game two last Saturday, tonight’s game was the tiebreaker of the series. Coming off an impressive 6-0 win on Monday against the IceDogs, the Steelheads continued their momentum to take game three of the series.
The battle between teams started right off puck drop as top lines squared off. While the majority of the first period saw no scoring, it was still high-intensity hockey as the teams went shot for shot and hit for hit. Despite seemingly even playing, the Steelheads had the edge as they kept the puck in the offensive end, leading to the eventual lead.
The Gabriel Chiarot and Jack Van Volsen pairing came close to getting the icebreaker as the pair maintained a strong offence while generating scoring chances. Yet, it was Konnor Smith who got the game’s first goal and his first as a Steelhead.
The play started with a breakaway from Carson Rehkopf, whose shot got blocked by Jacob Oster. Porter Martone quickly picked up the rebound before trying to go between the legs to sneak it into goal, but he was also covered off. On the second rebound, Martone picked it up once again and sent it back to Smith, who fired it past Oster. Martone’s assist on the goal allowed him to break the Steelhead’s franchise record for most points in a single season.
The Generals had a few opportunities to tie things up in the first, but with Brayden Gillespie making another impressive performance in net, the Trout would take the lead into the second.
Starting things off with a bang, Ben Danford and Stevie Leskovar got heated, leading to a series of special teams, but the score did not increase. However, when the teams were back to full strength, Oshawa struck back to tie the game.
Beckett Sennecke got the zone entry before making a cross-ice pass to Luca D’Amato, who sniped it through traffic into the net. Despite the General’s effort, the tie game did not last long as the Steelheads took back the lead less than a minute later.
After the puck was sent down and around the back of the General’s net, Oster went behind to clear it to an awaiting player. However, he was caught off guard by Adam Zidlicky, who stripped him of the puck and sent it out front to Van Volsen, who fired it into the open goal.
Following the trend from the first period, the Steelheads ended the second with the lead. The third period started similarly to the beginning of the game, with back-and-forth between the teams, but the Trout held a slight dominance over the Generals as they extended their lead.
A 2-on-1 play with MacDonell and Rehkopf gave the Steelheads the zone entry for Brampton’s third goal of the game. The Dallas Stars prospect took the initial shot on goal but was covered off by Oster. Not backing down, MacDonell picked up his own rebound before wrapping around the net to pass to Rehkopf with the empty net out front.
The pressure was on as the remaining minutes of the period ticked down. The Generals aimed to tie things up, while the Trout wanted to maintain their lead.
Oshawa came close to the comeback as D’Amato scored his second goal with less than five minutes to go. Within one, the Generals put all their strength on the ice as they pulled Oster for the extra attacker.
Despite the effort, they could not stop the Steelheads as Gillespie remained solid in net, leading to his 50th OHL win, and MacDonell got the empty net goal with two seconds to spare. Martone also got the assist on the final goal, allowing him to break yet another franchise record for most assists in a single season.
With milestones accomplished and a successful win to take the series lead, it was all things Steelheads tonight.
The Steelheads hit the road on Friday to take on the London Knights before returning home on Saturday for their Pucks N’ Paws game against the Sudbury Wolves. For tickets, click here.
