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20 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, January 21, 1986 Sports Falls two points short in bid for scoring crown ¥ Se ' do a RS SLE MoJack captain Brian Nicholson takes a quick breather dur- ing Sunday night's game against the Merchants. Nicholson had reason to be a bit tired as he logged more than 45 minutes ice time in an effort to win the league scoring title. He fell just two points short, despite five goals and an assist against the Merchants. (See story) Port Bantams off to flying start in playoff action . On Wednesday, January 15 the Port Perry Sportsland Bantams opened their playoffs with Uxbridge winning 6-3. Port played a strong game in earning the win against the pesky Uxbridge crew. Kevin Gibson came alive with 2 goals and 1 assist. Derek Fitzgerald pitched in with 4 assists. The third member of this line, Robbie Brown added 2 assists. Brian Appleby, Blair Bailey, John Lally and Mark Elliot also added goals with Lally, Bailey and Larry Collins picking up assists. The next night Sportsland travell- ed to Little Britain to continue the round robin playoff series. Little Britain is a strong physical club and especially tough at home. Port played one of its strongest games of the year to earn a 4-4 tie. This was quite a moral victory as Port fought back from a 3-0 deficit to earn the tie. Again the Fitzgerald line was strong as they accounted for all of Port's goals. Fitzgerald had 2 goals with Brown and Gibson each scor- ing one. All 3 had 2 assists and Matt Durward picked up another assist. One defence pair of Paul Wylie and Brian Appleby were outstanding and Chris McConnell played a strong game in the nets. On Sunday, January 19 Port travelled to Uxbridge and came out on top 5-2. This victory was well earned as all but 3 or 4 players had the flu. Once again the Fitzgerald line had a strong game scoring 4 of the 5 goals. Fitzgerald had 2, Gib- son, Brown and Lally each had one. Brown also added 2 assists with Fiit- zgerald, Gibson and Durward each adding one. This win gives Port 5 points in this 8 game round robin. Little Britain has 1 and Uxbridge none. Port hosts Little Britain on Wednesday night and then has a week off to rest up and get healthy. This should be a good game because if Port wins, they take a comman- ding 6 point lead on Little Britain although Little Britain has 2 games in hand. Game time Wednesday night is 9:15. Hope to see you there because the team could use all the support it can get. by John B. McCleliiind Port Perry MoJack captain Brian Nicholson gave it his best shot Sun- day night at the Scugog Arena, but fell two points short in his bid to win a second straight scoring title in the Central Junior C Hockey League. Going into Sunday night's game, Nicholson needed eight points to over-take Lindsay's Gary Howell for the title, a near impossible task against the Little Britain Merchants. But Nicholson made it interesting for the fans at the Scugog Arena as he scored five goals and added an assist for a six-point game. MoJacks went on to defeat the Merchants 7-5 in a match that meant nothing in the league standings or playoff picture. Going into last weekend's game, Nicholson appeared to have a solid grip on the scoring title, but Lindsay captain Gary Howell went out and scored seven points Friday night against Cobourg, then added eight more Sunday afternoon against Ux- bridge for a 15-point weekend. Howell wound up with 37 goals and 45 assists for 82 points, while Nicholson had to settle for a league leading 56 goals and 24 assists for 80 points. Nicholson also failed to match the single season goal record of 57 markers, despite a superb ef- fort Sunday night in which he was on the ice for at least 45 minutes. As the game between Port Perry and Little Britain meant nothing in the final standings, it was obvious that the MoJacks were doing everything to feed the puck to Nicholson. He helped set up the MoJacks first Little Britain netminder Ron Stewart was well out of his crease on this play during Junior C action Sunday at the Scugog Arena. The Mo- Jacks defeated the Merchants 7-5 for their first goal sending a pass in the slot to Jeff Johnstone. ' Merchant Paul Young got that one back on a short-handed effort later in the period. Midway through the second, Nicholson scored his first of the night with a snap wrist shot from 25 out. Late in the period, he added the second, tipping in a pass from the corner. Early in the third, Nicholson made it interesting as he hit for his - third goal on a pass from Andy Sutch. MoJacks Jon Campbell tip- ned in a centering pass at 11:33 to give the team a 5-2 lead. That seemed to be the cue to throw all caution to the wind and concentrate on giving the puck to Nicholson for the remainder of the game. It paid off at 12:27 as he rifled a shot from outside the blue line that changed direction after going off a stick. And a minute later, Brian Hendricks fed Nicholson a pass in the goal mouth and he batted it in for goal number five. But the Merchants threw a blanket over him the rest of the way and scored three times on their own to narrow the score to 7-5. The victory was an important one for the MoJacks for several reasons. It was their first win since December 22 and will give them a boost in the confidence department going into the playoffs this week. Paul Goreski, playing in net turn- ed in an outstanding performance. He kept the MoJacks in the game during the first and second periods, making numerous tough stops look the details) win in almost a month. Now the team meets Nicholson gives it his best shot easy. He was especially cool under fire when the MoJacks were billing a penalty. Goreski was slated to start Mon- day's opening playoff game and he may see more action in the playoffs as Ken Harman is on the shelf with a leg injury. The line of Nicholson, Sutch and Johnstone played with confidence Sunday night. Along with the six points by Nicholson, Sutch grabbed four assists and Johnstone had three assists and a goal. - And Darren Nesbitt, in just his se- cond game on the blue line for the MoJacks showed a lot of poise in the defensive zone clearning the puck and breaking up plays. He will have a settling influence on the entire Mo- Jack defensive corps. The MoJacks will meet Cobourg Cougars in the first round of playoffs (which got underway January 20) in Cobourg. The Cougars finished third overall and this was one team the MoJacks had pretty good success against through the season, winning three and losing once. Game two will be played at the Scugog Arena this coming Sunday evening with face-off at 7:30 PM. | The MoJacks finished the season with 22 points in sixth place with a 10-2-16 record. Most of those losses came in the second half of the season as the team just couldn't get un-tracked. First place Bowmanville will take on the Port Hope Panthers. Ux- bridge, which finished second, will tackle the Merchants and the Lind- say Muskies and Lakefield Chiefs will square off in the other series. Cobourg in the opening round of play-offs. First play-off game at the Scugog Arena will be this Sunday with face-off at 7:30 p.m. (See story for p NC Nn SRNR STR PITT Soph ns Sadi al 7 v he REE NAA Pi aid IN igs Ls J i SLATS NEN ih od WERE GSE AER A J SE ar FC JA Cl - _ |