Raiders give Caps new life after OT loss

Any questions about the pride of the Brampton Capitals were put off for at least one more game after they escaped elimination by the host Georgetown Raiders Wednesday night at the Alcott Arena with a late comeback 6-5 overtime victory. The fourth-place Raiders still led the best-of-seven OHA Provincial Jr. A Hockey League West Division semifinal heading into last night's (Thursday's) scheduled game five at Brampton's Memorial Arena, but were only a few minutes away from a sweep of the series on home ice, blowing a 5-3 advantage with just less than seven minutes to play in the third period. Brampton captain Spencer Anderson tipped in a power-play point shot and then leading scorer Matt Ferreira picked a loose puck out of a crowd in the slot, firing it past Georgetown goalie Marc Stuart to force overtime. Presented with a couple of man-advantage opportunities in the first 10-minute OT frame, the Raiders misfired and actually gave the first-place Caps a power play thanks to a too-many-men penalty. A centring pass by Jordan Oye bounced off a Georgetown defender and behind Stuart for the winner at the 8:01 mark. "I thought we had plenty of good chances but we didn't put the final nail in the coffin," said Raiders' coach James Richmond, who was skeptical of the shotcounter's 39-28 total in favour of Brampton. "When you score five goals in the playoffs you should win. Some of our guys didn't bear down and pay attention to details when we were up by two and we already knew that (the Capitals) are a dangerous team. But overall, we've played pretty well in the series. We won three games and the only one we lost was on a freaky bounce in OT." Without either of their regular-season netminders in the lineup due to injury, the Capitals opened the scoring and Juvenile call-up Jonathan Rumley was able to hold his own in goal, as the teams were tied at two halfway through the wellattended contest. Subsequent goals by Kyle Schwende and Jeremy Whelan appeared to signal broom-breakout time early in the third period for Georgetown, until the Caps were finally able to catch some breaks. Richmond said that Keaton Hartigan was going to start game five on Thursday, while there was word that veteran goalie Wyatt Russell has recovered from postconcussion symptoms and was set to return for the Capitals. Jon Southgate, Matt Thomson and Wade Finegan also tallied for the Raiders. In the other West Division semifinal matchup, the Hamilton Red Wings beat the Blades in Oakville on Tuesday 5-4 to take a 2-1 series lead. Game four was slated for Thursday night in Hamilton.

Georgetown Raiders' forward Greg Lever took possession of Brampton Capital Jeff Bayley's turnover in the first period of their OHA Provincial Jr. A Hockey League game Wednesday evening at the Alcott Arena. The Capitals shocked the Raiders, who were poised to sweep the matchup, with a third-period rally to prolong the best-of-7 series until at least Thursday night for game five in Brampton.