The Hawks earned a trip to the finals with a 6-5 shoot-out win over the Omegas.

This game started out to look like the Omegas were going to walk away with it. By the end of the first period, the Omegas held a 3-0 lead and looked like they were totally in control of the game. I have to admit that I thought it was lights out for the Hawks at this point. The Hawks showed signs of life in the second period by scoring a goal to put themselves back in the game.

In the first minute of the third period, Kurt Nutma scored a huge goal for the Hawks that set the tone for a wild third period. A few minutes later Dave VanOostveen scored to tie the game up at 3-3. Three minutes after this, Dave Giffen scored to regain the lead for the Omegas. The lead was only held for a minute and a half before Dave VanOostveen tied it up again at 4-4 with 12:50 to go in the third. The next ten minutes of the game was extremely good hockey with both teams going hard for the win.

It looked like it might be all over for the Hawks when Dave Giffen scored again to give the lead back to the Omegas with 3:00 to go in the third. The Hawks didn't give up and they tied it up yet again with a power-play goal with 1:31 left in the third. This sent the game to a ten minute overtime period, which (although was exciting) solved nothing. Buckle your seatbelts, folks - cause we're going to a shoot-out!

The Hawks were the home team and chose to shoot first in the best-of-five format.
The first shooter for each team were both unsuccessful.

The second shooter for the Hawks also did not score, but Dave Giffen scored for the Omegas, giving them a 1-0 lead in the shoot-out.

The Hawks remained goal-less even after the third shooter. Things looked pretty good for the Omegas when their third shooter, Mark Zylstra, scored to give them a 2-0 lead in the shoot-out. This meant that the Hawks would need to be perfect in the remainder of the best-of-five shoot-out to stay alive.

Dave VanOostveen was the Hawks' fourth shooter and he did not disappoint when he scored. The Omegas could still win the game if their fourth shooter would score, but he was unsuccessful. This brought the best-of-five shootout score to 2-1 in favour of the Omegas with one shooter to go on each team.

The Hawks went with their veteran, Pat Dam, who kept his team alive by scoring on his shot. The Omegas, once again, had the chance to end it by scoring on their fifth shot, but he too was unsuccessful. So, since the best-of-five shoot-out ended in a 2-2 tie, we needed to go to a sudden death shoot-out.

The Hawks went with Rob Nutma, and he scored to give the Hawks the shoot-out lead. This meant that the Omegas would need to score to stay alive. Everyone in the arena held their breath as the Omegas' shooter approached the goal, but Mike Ward made a big save to give the Hawks the victory.

Dave VanOostveen of the Hawks gets the Player of the Game nod once again. He came up huge for the Hawks by tieing the game up twice in the third period and by getting a "must score" goal in the shoot-out.

On a personal note, I would like to say that this may have been the best game that I've seen in this league for a long time. It looked like it was going to be kind've a stinker at first, but it turned out to be a hard fought battle between two deserving teams. And a cleanly played game to boot.
Everyone always says that a shoot-out is a sucky way to end a game, but I think deep down we all wanted to see one. I don't think that anybody there thought it was boring anyways.
Shame on you if you missed it.

Duncan Vanderwal of the IceDogs was handed a "10 minute" misconduct in the game on Saturday night. This is the first "10 minute" misconduct that Duncan was given this season, so he will not be suspended for it.

The Omegas evened the series with the Hawks with a convincing 6-1 victory. The Omegas got off to an early lead for the second straight night, but this time they kept pouring it on. They held a 4-0 lead by the end of the first period. Ian VanReenen & Mark Zylstra each scored a hat-trick for the Omegas. They will share the Player of the Game honours for their efforts.
The third and deciding game of this series will be played at the Point Edward Arena on Friday, March 15 @ 7:00pm.

The Cattle Barons swept their semi-finals series with the IceDogs with a 3-1 win. O.J. Deelstra once again is the Player of the Game. He scored all three goals for the Cattle Barons. He already has scored seven goals in the two playoff games for the Cattle Barons.
The Cattle Barons have advanced to the finals and will play the winner of the other series between the Hawks & Omegas.

Here is the schedule for the Finals:
Game 1 - Saturday, March 16 @ 7:00pm at the Point Edward Arena.
Game 2 - Friday, March 22 @ 7:00pm at the Point Edward Arena.
Game 3 - Friday, March 29 @ 9:00pm at the RBC Centre (if necessary).

The early game between the Cattle Barons & IceDogs got a little heated after some calls were disputed.

Jordan DeBoer of the IceDogs was handed a "10 minute" misconduct in the first period. This was Jordan's first "10 minute" misconduct this season, so he was not suspended for this. However, in the second period of the game, Jordan was given another "10 minute" misconduct. Since this was his second "10 minute" misconduct of the season, he has been suspended from playing in the second game of the semi-finals.

Joe DeBoer of the IceDogs & Kevin Ryan of the Cattle Barons were each given "10 minute" misconducts in the second period. This was the first "10 minute" misconduct for both of these players this season, so they are both okay to play in the next game.

Brett DeBoer of the IceDogs was given a "10 minute" misconduct in the third period of the game. This was Brett's second "10 minute" misconduct of the season, so he has been suspended from playing in the second game of the semi-finals.

In their first ever playoff game, the Cattle Barons beat the IceDogs 5-4 in the first semi-final game. O.J. Deelstra led his team to victory with four goals in the game. He earns the Player of the Game. The Cattle Barons held a 5-1 lead half-way through the third period, but Jordan DeBoer made it a close game when he scored three consecutive goals for the IceDogs. The IceDogs put the pressure on to tie it up late in the game, but the Cattle Barons used their combined total of a "whopping" two playoff games experience in our league (Trevor Benjamins is the only Cattle Baron with any playoff games in our League under his belt) and held on for the win.

The other semi-final game between the Omegas & Hawks ended in a 3-2 win by the Hawks. The Omegas got off to an early 2-0 lead thanks to two goals by Dave Giffen. They held on to the 2-0 lead until the third period. The first shift of the third period was a big one for the Hawks. In this shift they tied the game up thanks to goals by Calvin Pelleboer & Kyle Huzinga. Kyle's goal was a beauty shot from just inside the blueline that dinged in off the crossbar. We'll give Kyle the nod for the Player of the Game.