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. ; ' MoJacks bounce Merchants in five games - The Port Perry MoJacks are renewing an old rivalry with the Bowmanville Eagles for the Centrfll Ontario Junior C title, / MoJacks earned the right to four games to che. In front of a large crowd at the 8cugog Arena last Thursday evening, MoJacks got a pair of goals from Shannon Todd to win a tight-checking affair 3-2. Todd gave MoJacks a 1-0 lead in the first on a back-hand with Ian Titterton and Clair Cornish drawing the assists. Steve Laird made it 2-0 at the mid-point as he snapped home a pass at the side of the cage. Cornish and Bill Mercer set the play up. Merchants cut the lead to 2-1 late in the first as Rich Welner broke in alone on Rick Hutchinson and went top shelf with the back-hand. The Merchants were getting superb netminding from Don Fleming in the second period. He made an ding glove up at the side of the net by Kevin McDonald and Shannon Todd to get the. all-important first goal. Early in the second, MoJacks pulled into a tie as McDonald just kept driving for the Merchant net and shovelled the puck past Don Fleming to knot things at deuces. At 4:03 Merchants once again took the lead as Chad Desjardins found the range with a long shot from the left side to make it 3-2. As he has in several recent games, MoJack' coach Brad Menzies showed no hesitation in lifting a goalie. Larocque was out and Hutchinson in at this point. Just 10 seconds later, Cornish took a pass from Kevin Vivian inside the Merchant blue line, deked around a couple of defenders, put Fleming down with a fake shot then went to the backhand and flipped the puck into the corner. He really made it look easy. With the score tied 3-3 Hutchi came up with a stop on a Jason Cochrane breakaway that seemed to give the Merchants a lift as they tied things at 2-2 when Gary Shaw converted a two-on-one break. With so much on the line, both teams slowed the pace down in the final frame, playing with a lot of caution and trying to avoid making the "big mistake." But at 13:20 Todd gave the MoJacks their 3-2 lead when he caught the short side under Fleming's glove. Nathan Brown forced a turn-over with a solid hit in the corner. He and €ochrane were credited with assists on the winning goal. A slashing penalty by Dave Lee in the final minute hurt the Merchants chances to tie the game. lan Titterton was breaking in alone and Lee took a hack at his legs. ANE FOUR : In & pivotal game for both clubs at the Scugog Arena last Wednesday evening, Merchants took advantage of a sluggish start by the MoJacks to draw first blood but then had spilled all over them as the green and white stormed to a convincing 8- 3 victory to go up three games to one. Veteran Clair Cornish, in his final season of Junior C hockey, sparked the win with two goals and three assists. This was arguably his best game in a MoJack jersey. Not only did he contribute on the score-sheet with his five points, he led and domi superb save as he "stacked the pads" and turned away a point - blank shot that had corner written all over it. That seemed to give the team a big lift and Steve Staniland netted what turned out to be the winner at 13:00 as he was set up by Cornish and drilled a perfect wrist shot low to the corner from about 30 feet out. That was Stehfland's 5th in post season play, one more than he had all 04800. Less than three minutes later, Jason Cochrane and Shannon Todd executed the two on one break to perfect as Todd dished to get into the act. At the 16 minute mark, Cornish "froze" Fleming with a fake slap shot from the left side, fed a perfect pass to Laird breaking for the crease and he had all kinds of open mesh as a target. With six seconds left in the middle frame, Laird was set up by McDonald on a clear breakaway and he opted to pull the trigger with a great shot from between the hash-marks They cruised the rest of the way keeping the Merch off he caught Kyle Higham with a shoulder and sent him heavily into the corner boards. Higham, who likes the heavy going, bounced up none the worse for wear. SLAPSHOTS: The two goals by Shannen Todd in the series clincheg gave him 13 in post season play, not bad for a guy who was so discouraged with his game in December he left the club for a couple of weeks. He won the Central Leagué rookie "crown last season. He's been hockey over the in five games. He thought it ' would go six or seven, Menzies said the overtime comeback in game three was the turning point in the series and Merchant coach 'Rob Louttit agreed. "T'm proud of our guys, Louttif, told the Citizen after the last game. . "We were a fifth place team and we weren't supposed to win the first (against Uibridge) series. We've come a long way." and you can't do that from the penalty box. five on three (manpower situations) really hurt us," he said. The Merchants will lose seven players to over-age next season and Louttit said the club is building a young squad which hopefully will stay together for a couple of years. As for his own future next season, he said he wants fo return to the bench, but that's a decision for the executive. Looking ahead to the Bowmanville series, Menzies said it doesn't bother him that the Eagles are considered favourites. "Let them be the favourites, Anything can happen in a adding The sniper and the stopper. Shannon Todd (lef) and goalie Rick Hutchinson celebrate series win over Little Britain. - Todd got two goals and Hutchinson made the big stops. Macks md WHAT Shake ade he € ough fe gam sees thet anced | Thursday night when Port Perry put Little Britain out with a 3-2 win. Merchants however struck early in this one as Shawn Murry snapped one behind Shawn with the game Just 52 second old. At 7:52, Larocque allowed a rebound to squirt off his stick and Tyler Jenkins was there in the slot to drive the puck home. Merchants looked like they meant in getting this best of seven series tied at two games each. But Mr. Cornish had other ideas. With the MoJacks enjoying a two man advantage, he was set bal 'and maki sure they were not able to generate momentum thet could lead to a come-back. For the first time in nine minors, Merchants had 15 and Round one to the MoJacks Hang on to your hats Junior C fans. If game one between the Port Perry MoJacks and Davia ifa Eagles is ny Andi dndicasidn championship series has all the makings of a down 'n dirty trench with no holds barred and no taken. The teams battered dnd hammered away at each other for 60 full minutes Sunday night at the Bowmanville Arena and' In two weske snd bafbly broke a