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20- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, February 27, 1996 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" PORT PERRY STAR ORTS MoJdacks behind the eight ball in series By Wally Donaldson Special to the Star At a time when a total team commitment is para- mount for success, the Port Perry Modacks ap- pear to be portraying a se- quel from the movie "A Few Good Men." A culmination of mys- terious absentees and bonehead penalties at a supreme time of this Cen- tral Ontario Junior C Hockey League season has put the Modacks behind the proverbial eight ball. Little Britain Mer- chants, taking advantage of Port Perry's shortened bench, scored a 4-3 over- time victory at Scugog Arena last Sunday night, taking a 3-2 lead in this best-of-seven semi-final playoff series. Meanwhile, the Ux- bridge Bruins, having dis- posed of the Georgina Ice in easy fashion, are wait- ingin the wings. After regaining a series lead earlier in the week with a 6-3 victory in Port Perry, the Modacks coughed up a 3-0 lead Sat- urday in Little Britain and succumbed to a 6-4 loss. Up to that point, the se- ries had remained a "homer" standoff. "They were all over us in the first period, but we wouldn't quit," said a thrilled Merchants coach Rob Louttit. "We played it tough in the stretch and got a key win. And now we're carrying the momen- tum going home." Sixth game of this series is Wednesday night in Lit- tle Britain (8 p.m.) and if the ModJacks are able to force a seventh, it will be played Thursday evening at Scugog Arena with an 8:30 p.m. start. Mark Huble's redirec- tion with his back turned to the net handcuffed goal- ie Paul Roberts just 40 sec- onds into the extra ses- sion. The reality of the situa- tion at that point was best described by Modacks' skipper Chic Carnegie when he said bluntly, "We were bagged." The few on the bench gave an outstanding effort with special recognition to Roberts, blueliner Scott Heasman, makeshift de- fenceman Todd Stirling and speedy Trevor Bremn- er. The top line of Keith Leslie, Todd Dennis and Steve Barkwell played to its high expectations. But it was the missing players, followed by the soon departed members which created havoc for the coaching staff. Mike Pigeau, who has missed games this year be- cause of work commit- ments, was a no-show for Sunday's tilt. Derek An- sists. Tie game. the play. Tied again. Final score 3-2. period, still no score. Compton lose close one We travelled to Peterborough for the first game of the playoffseason on Thursday night. This game was to be a real barnburner. At the end of the first, noscore and it wasn't for lack of trying. At the 9:41 mark of the second, Peterborough got on the board. At 6:15, Blake Cunningham drove the mesh. Matt Menear and Brett Simmonds got the as- At 5:28 of the third, Peterborough knocked another in. Port turned on the after-burners and tied it back up again thanks to the efforts of Tyler Cunningham. Blake Cunningham and Mike Redman assisted on Period four (overtime), here we come. Peterbo- rough knocked one in at 6:50. Port turned up the heat again. Lots of action. Port dug their heels in and man- aged some great shots on net. The clock ticked down. You can be really proud of yourselves. It was a great game and you gave them a real run for their money. You gave Ian lots to talk about too. You've got to call us the "hard luck kids." It was our second matchup on Saturday. Another great game. We out shot them and we even out played them at times, but still no luck/connections. There was no score at the end of the first. Second At the 4:43 mark of the third, Peterborough got one. As insurance, they picked up another with 1:19 left. Compton Cable has never been a team to give up and they didn't today either. We might be down, but don't ever count us out! With only 23 seconds left on the clock, Craig Simmonds cracked it in. Matt Charron assisted. With six players on the ice, Port contiued to apply pressure, but time ticked away on us. derson preferred to be at a regional broomball cham- pionship for an Oshawa team. Gavin Cochrane, who has sported the captain's "C" all year despite miss- ing far too many contests through suspensions, was on the sidelines...again! Three quality athletes with team commitment on the backburner. The bench was further shortened in the second period when Kevin Vivian foolishly mouthed off to referee Rob MacGregor following a holding penal- ty to Jeremy Geer. He was tossed. Ryan Ridgway intro- duced Darryl James' face to the ice with a series of crosschecks behind the Little Britain goal a short time later. He was tossed, the result of three stick in- fractions. "Can't do much," com- mented Carnegie. "They should know better. It's selfish. They're not think- ing of the team." A brouhaha in front of the Little Britain bench at the conclusion of the sec- ond period further re- duced Port Perry's bench strength following the de- parture of Corey Brick- nell, Matt Pyke and Paul Kelly. Merchants lost Wes Gonder, Jake MacLeay, Tyler Jenkins and Jay White. The loss of Pyke was es- pecially critical. He's the quarterback of the power play unit and his absence was sorely missed, espe- cially in the latter stages when given an opportuni- ty to get alead. Modacks sported a 2-0 first period advantage with Leslie and Heasman connecting. Merchants rallied, beginning with Tim Teel's first of two goals just 31 seconds into the middle stanza. Teel later tied the score on the power play. Hope sprung eternal later in the period when Heasman, on a breaka- way, tallied a shorthand- ed goal, giving ModJacks a 3-2lead. ModJacks could have en- hanced their position ear- ly in the third while enjoy- ing a two-man advantage for 1:24. The earlier explu- sion of Pyke took the bite out of the power play, how- ever. Brad Cann tied it up at 5:21, redirecting a point shot by Kirk Robertson. Leshe just missed a golden opportunity while Turnto Page 21 The Peewee Legionnaires and the Co- bourg Cougars were deadlocked at one game apiece when the Legionnaires headed to Cobourg on Tuesday, Feb. 20 for the rubber match of their playoff se- ries. The players and fans alike were ex- pecting this game to be "tough" one and 22 seconds into the game it became evi- dent just how tough! Apparently, Co- bourg scored, although it was not evi- dent to anyone in the stands or on the ice, (either Port Perry or Cobourg), oth- er than the refs. Despite considerable protestations by our bench and our goalie, Chris Monsma, the goal stood and it obviously affected our Legion- naires as one minute later Cobourg scored again on a goalmouth scramble - this time for real. not give up and a Cobourg penalty proved costly to them as Matt MacMas- ter scored on a power play. Jason Whit- worth and Dean Van Camp assisted. Shortly after, Chris Skerratt went in on a breakaway but was turned away by the Cobourg goalie, and the 2-1 score stood into the second period. The second period started out well as Port Perry tied the score at two all, when Dane Gray flipped in a loose puck after Jason Whitworth made a nice move to split the Cobourg defence and get a shot away. Mark Blakley also as- sisted. However, a turnover in the neutral zone shortly after, gave Cobourg the Despite being down 2-0, our team did Legionnaires ousted The Legionnaires kept pressing hard and were rewarded with some great chances. Scott Brownson, Steven Wy- gerde and Braden Tarbotton all helped control the play and create opportuni- ties. The rearguard corps of David Justyn- ski, Grant Hooker, Sean Jeffrey and Tim Jones all worked hard to hold the line and force turnovers. The Cobourg goalie came up big time and time again though! A Cobourg bench penalty started the third period but the period break: seemed to have hindered the Legion- naire offence as they were unable to sustain an attack and another Cobourg goal at the 5 min. mark all but put the game out of reach. Another controversial referee call on a called-back Port Perry goal late in the third added to the Legionnaire frustra- tion. Pulling our goalie with a minute left in the game created more scoring chances but it was not to be as Cobourg held on to win 4-2. Chris Monsma (with moral support from fellow cage cop Carl Evans) did his best through the game despite some af- ter-the-whistle hacking by the Cougars and despite the demoralizing officials impact onthe game flow. Congratulations go out to the Co- bourg squad who actually won the se- ries by gamely beating us on our own ice to avert a sweep. Hopefully, they will represent our zone respectably in the remaining OMHA playdowns. lead again 3-2. On Friday, Feb. 19 Pearce Auction visited Lindsay. It was a close checking see saw game as Lindsay got on the board first. Port Perry's Ashley Lucas carried it up the ice, through their defence, to score on a backhand. As- sists went to Cassidy We- ber and Taylor Churchill. Lindsay took the lead again in the second period. Suddenly, Tyson Savage whipped up the ice, shot and scored for Pearce Auc- tion with assists going to Nelson Langmaid and Matthew Roth. Kory Bauer and Jeff Tomcheski worked hard muscling through their defence but were stopped short. Mid- way into the third, Lind- say scored the winner to set up a rematch in Port Perry Friday the 23rd. In the second meeting Lindsay seemed to be there first all night. They cruised to a 4-1 victory with Pearce Auctions lone goal coming from clean-up man Jeff Tomcheski as- sisted by Keenan Geer. The next game in the play-off round robin was in Stouffville Feb. 25. Pearce Auction played well this game and needed a win to advance to the next round. Stouffville scored first later in the opening period. Port Perry had many exciting chanc- es with Michael Lycett and Kyle Mullins coming close. Early in the third period Leo Taillon tipped the puck up to Shane Jef- 'Auctioneer playoff action trey who sent Ashley Lu- cas away on a breakaway to score and tie it. Nelson Langmaid and Derek Go- reski with goalies Mark Carnaghan and Leo Tail- lon had strong defensive games which helped end the game in a draw. | matein Oshawa. --_-- PPHS teams in LOSSA On Friday night the senior boys won a tough semi- final match against Central Chiefs 57-46 to advance to the LOSSA final at Durham College on Thursday night at 6 p.m. Andy Mitchell led the Rebels attack- with 18 points, two of them coming on a slam dunk af- ter a missed free throw midway through the second quarter. Gary Norton, one of the few true seniors left at Port, put in a strong performance scoring 14, while Chris Arnold and Mike Smith both had excellent two way games for the Rebels. The Rebels now play Rob- erts from Oshawa for the LOSSA championship and the right to advance to Ontario High School Champi- onshipsin Belleville next week. The midgets put in a strong effort to defeat Ux- bridge 48-41. The scoring was spread out among all the team members: Mark Versage, and M. Hamilton had 11 each while Eric Alton had nine and Lawrence Cook had seven. The midget team also plays in the LOSSA final on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. at O'Neill Colle-