Lakefield Herald Special Report

Chiefs sweep Clarington!

by Jim Carson

Discipline, record setting goaltending along with a complete team effort pushed the Lakefield Chiefs into their League Final after a four games to none sweep over the defending champions the Clarington Eagles.

The Chiefs won their games 3-0, 6-0, 5-0 and 2-1 to advance to their second straight Central OHA Jr. “C” Final.

Rookie Zac Wainman went a total of 220 minutes of shutout hockey with three straight shutouts. The OHA have been asked to check to ascertain if that amount of time without a goal against is in fact a record, although those that have been around the league cannot remember it ever happening in their time.

The Chiefs, who were the second most penalized team in the league, changed their habits picking up 44 minutes in penalties compared to 99 minutes by the Eagles.

After their opening 3-0 win at home February 19, the Chiefs travelled to Clarington on Thursday, February 21 where they scored three power play goals enroute to a 6-0 win. Nathan Larson led the Chiefs with two goals, while singles went to Eric Shewell, Eric Oosting, Derek Manley and Rile Campbell.

In Lakefield Saturday night in front of their biggest crowd of the season, forward Jesse Gregory was a standout scoring once and adding four assists.

Derek Manley scored his third goal of the series as did Eric Shewell. Jordan Walsh added a goal and two assists while Matt Perras notched a single marker.

After being shutout for three consecutive games the Eagles finally got one behind Wainman one minute and forty seconds into the second period to give Clarington a 1-0 lead going into the third period.

The Chiefs tied the score eight minutes into the final frame when Derek Manley stole the puck in the Eagles corner centering a pass to Tyler Roy who made no mistake, putting it in the top corner.

The Chiefs were killing a penalty at the time and that lifted the Chiefs who took over the game from that point as Connor Blair scored four minutes later on the power play.

Head Coach Tim McCormick had high praise for his goaltender, but complimented his whole team on the series win.

“Zac came up big especially early in the games, but our guys are committed to being disciplined. It no doubt was a complete 20 guy team effort with guys blocking shots to taking big hits to make a play. I congratulate them but we will face another tough opponent in the finals,” stated McCormick.

The Uxbridge Bruins presently lead the Port Perry MoJacks 2-0 in the other semi final series and it is not known when the Chiefs will open the final series.

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