Turkiewicz scores OT winner for Bulls
It’s a good thing Keaton Turkiewicz was quick off the mark.
His coach was thinking of pulling the fourth-year winger off the top line after Turkiewicz banged his shoulder on an earlier play. But Turkiewicz didn’t know it yet and jumped over the boards with the rest of his linemates.
Turkiewicz made the best of that shift, scoring the winning goal in overtime to lift the Belleville Bulls to a 4-3 win over the Kitchener Rangers in the final round robin game at the MasterCard Memorial Cup on Wednesday.
“We were thinking about not sending him back out on the ice,” Bulls’ coach and GM George Burnett admitted after the game. “It was a quick change and we called his line and he jumped before we could make the switch.”
Burnett said that it was good to see Turkiewicz bury the game winner on a scramble in front of the net.
“He’s a tenacious guy that works his tail off each and every shift,” Burnett said. “Usually when he makes something happen, it’s through hard work and determination. He’s been a real good guy for our team all year long. He’s scored some big goals for our club.”
The win gives the Bulls (2-1) second place and last line change in the semi-final against Kitchener (1-2) on Friday (7:00 p.m. Eastern on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS).
Scott Tregunna, Mikkel Boedker and Yannick Weber staked the Rangers to a 3-0 lead a little more than midway through the first period, but the Bulls battled back with goals by Shawn Matthias and Cory Tanaka in the second period and P.K. Subban tied the game on a powerplay 20 seconds into the third period.
Turkiewicz, who was moved up to the Bulls’ top line with Matthias and captain Matt Beleskey earlier in the tournament, was thrilled to get the winner and giving the Bulls a moral victory over the Rangers, who beat them in seven games in the OHL Championship Series.
“Just battling back is good for our confidence going into the semi-finals, which is a must-win,” Turkiewicz said. “Knowing how we can beat them, especially if we have a good start. It was another bad start for us and we need to try to turn that around.”
His teammates were happy to see that hard-working Turkiewicz end the game with his second goal of the tournament.
“After games, you see a guy like that with ice bags all over him and cold tubs every day,” Subban said. “He lays everything out on the line. It’s an emotional time because our season is on the line next game and players like that you know leave it all on the ice. He’s such a character player and works so hard. No one else deserved it more than him tonight.”
Turkiewicz said that he feels at home back on the top line with Beleskey, who he billets with in Belleville, and Matthias.
“We were together at the beginning of the year and had some success,” Turkiewicz said. “It’s good to get back out with them. They are two of my good buddies off the ice and we have chemistry. Good things are happening right now.”
Mike Murphy was outstanding in the game again for the Bulls, turning aside 54 shots, including 26 in the third period to maintain the tie score. The Bulls were outshot 57-29.
“It’s not the first time that he’s done it,” Burnett said. “He continues to hear that he can’t and he continues to prove that he can. I thought he battled hard and despite being down 3-0 our team battled hard as well and competed a little harder for the last 40 minutes and the overtime. Without him, the game is probably over early, but he gives us that confidence that we can crawl back in it and we did tonight and he deserves a lot of the credit.”
The Rangers have lost four of the past five games against the Bulls, but are confident that they will be ready to go for the semi-final on Friday.
“The one thing about our group is that we haven’t made it easy all year,” Rangers’ coach and GM Peter DeBoer said. “But we’ve played some good hockey and we could easily be 3-0 in this tournament as quickly as we’re 1-2. We don’t have to change a whole lot. We need to get a little luck around the net and keep doing what we’re doing. Our guys have always responded well to adversity and I’m hoping that it might be the best thing that happened tonight.”
Game Summary
Photo: Aaron Bell / CHL
