Schedule & Results, Bantam AE, U15, 2011-2012 (Petrolia Minor Hockey)

So here we go and it is Shamrock League playoffs.  The Oilers find themselves in the B division of the playoffs with a double round robin schedule (home and away game versus each team) against the Thamesford Attack and the St Marys Rock.  The Oilers split their regular season meetings with both of these opponents but finished strong late in the season to surpass both teams in the final month.

The way the scheduling was set provided the Oilers with home ice advantage as both the other teams played both of their head to head games prior to starting games against Petrolia.  The first game between St Marys and Thamesford ended up with a tie score 2-2.  The second game saw St Marys dominate Thamesford 5-0.  So after 2 games St Marys had 3 points and Thamesford only 1 point.

To get home ice advantage Petrolia needs to end the round robin with the most points.  The Oilers lost the last series to a very strong Strathroy team who has gone past Mt Brydges to get to the semi final in OMHA playdowns.  The Oilers beating Strathroy once in that series.  Strong competition always helps future performance and this was the case in the game that will now be described.

The Oilers were challenged to come out and play very physical, move the puck quickly and to the best options, shoot often and drive the net for rebounds.  Oh and backcheck like never before.

The first period the Oilers came out and were the more aggressive team.  Petrolia had more quality scoring chances in this game than any game this season.  Hats off to the Rock goalie as he saw a lot of puck and made this game closer than it really was.  Alex Mayhead broke the scoring late in the first period after what seemed like scoring chance after scoring chance that just would not find the back of the net.  Alex ripped a nice wrist shot past the netminder.

The second period saw no scoring but a tonne of chances had by the Oilers.  This night saw some huge hits as Eddy Loerts stepped into a bone crunching hit at the offensive blue line that a St Marys player wishes he never was a part of.  Mitchel Crombean who has been splitting time between centre and defense all year played his usual crash and bang brand of hockey this game.  Petrolia had more penalties than St Marys this game and that was a little questionable but turned out to be a good thing as the Oilers did a excellent job of icing the puck and not having a lot of sustained pressure in their own zone.

There was a penalty kill situation that requires mention as Alex Mayhead and Jaret Scarrow kept the Rock hemmed in their own zone and nearly scored a couple of times.

The third period saw Spencer Burden score the final goal of the game on a rebound.  The Rock managed to hit a late goal post that was the only shot to get past Matt Kuipers as he had another shutout performance.

Good job guys.  A few shaky shifts but a lot of dominant shifts.  3 games to the B final.  GO OIL GO.