RELIEVED

If not for goalie Cody Vinnai perhaps the Norwich Merchants would have lost Friday night but thanks to him and Defenceman Kevin Kuehl who scored the game winner 15:42 of overtime to give Norwich a 2-1 win. Norwich now leads the best of seven series 3 games to 2 and can wrap the series up with a win Saturday night. Woodstock's Taylor Jones scored with just over 4 minutes left in the third to break thier 3 plus game scoreless streak in Norwich. Brian Phillips scored a powerplay goal late in the second giving Norwich a 1-0 lead.

Though the story of the night was the goalies Vinnai for Norwich and Woodstock's Alex Gegeny were terrific. Vinnai kept his team in the game in the second in third when Woodstock had a ton of chances. Gegeny was also terrific giving Woodstock a chance to win in OT making big save after big save. Vinnai ended the night with 28 saves, Gegeny had 49 saves in the loss.

Norwich's depth also proved to be to much for Woodstock to handle as Woodstock coach Wayne Maxner only played 2 lines while Norwich went with 3 lines in the overtime, Norwich slowly wore Woodstock down. It'll be interesting to see what Woodstock has left in the tank after tonight. Game 6 goes Saturday night in Woodstock starting at 7:30pm.

Also Congrats are in order to Norwich Forward Justin Bremner and his girlfriend Michelle Davis who gave birth to a healthy baby boy Thursday night.

The Great Choke Job...The Post Mortem of Game 4

Up 3-1 going into the third period last night it looked like the Norwich Merchants were well on their way to grabbing a 3-1 series lead, Woodstock Renegade Forward Travis Horvath would have other ideas. Horvath scored 39 seconds into the third period cutting the lead to 3-2 and giving Woodstock life. For the majority of the third period it seemed as Woodstock had the Merchants on their heels and looking like they were playing not to lose. It seemed like they might get out of it with the win but with just under a minute left Woodstock called a timeout and lifted goalie Alex Gegeny in favour of a extra attacker, with 41 seconds left Horvath would bang in the tying goal past Norwich goalie Cody Vinnai. With everyone in the building thinking overtime Horvath again would have something to say about it racing in along the far boards and cutting in front of the Norwich net and wristing a shot past Vinnai with 11 seconds left to take a 4-3 lead. Al McEwin would add a empty netter in the dying seconds to seal the 5-3 shocker and set up Game 5 Friday night in Norwich.

I Hope Norwich coach Dave Smith can get his players to respond and play like they did in Game 3, I do however have to question a few of his moves in last nights game.

1. Why in the last minute up by a goal is the defence pairing of Kevin Keuhl and Dan O'Hearn are out on the ice, Nate Geerlinks and Dan Graul were their best pairing all night why not have them out there in the last minute, chances are Horvath doesn't get a chance to play hero if they were not out there.

2. Why change the lineup from Game 3, I would have left F Matt Brown in the lineup and kept Shayne Ross out of the lineup if it wasn't broke don't fix it.

Disappearing Act: Norwich Captain Ryan Baetz who last year during the playoffs was their leading scorer has looked invisible through the first four games only garnering an assist in last night loss.

Other Choke jobs: Last night wasn't the first time Norwich has had a collapse of that nature in the Dave Smith era. It has happened on 3 other occasions.

January 2 2009 vs Simcoe: Simcoe scores 3 goals in 15 seconds to overcome a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead they would go onto win 5-3.

December 10 2006 at Simcoe: Simcoe scores 3 goals in 2:20 to overcome a 6-4 deficit to win 7-6.

February 3 2007 vs Simcoe: Simcoe scores 3 goals in 5:26 to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3.

Playoff Time is hear, Is there a better time of year.

The second round of the Niagara West playoffs are underway, In the one Division Semi has the first place Norwich Merchants playing the fourth place Woodstock Renegades. The Merchants had a bye in the first round thanks to finshing first in the regular season. Woodstock defeated the New Hamburg Firebirds in 5 games.

Game 1-Wednesday February 18 at Norwich

Norwich 6, Woodstock 0

Norwich came out firing on all cylinders, Norwich would open the scoring with Chad Barclay beating Woodstock goalie Alex Gegeny four and a half minutes in. Two minutes later Barclay would score again, this time on the powerplay to make it 2-0 and send Gegeny to the bench in favor of Chris Lee who would hold of the Norwich attack untill the three minute mark of the second period when Sean McLeod would add another powerplay marker to make it 3-0. Steve Boyd would score the back breaking goal 10 minutes later when he blasted one over Lee's glove side to make it 4-0. Woodstock coach Wayne Maxner would put Gegeny back in to start the third period. Woodstock would spend the third period taking undisciplined penalties topped off with Maxner being given a bench penalty for chirping off to referee Kevin Morton. Norwich did tack on 2 more powerplay goals as Chad Barclay added his 3rd of the night and Kris Krolouski would round out the Norwich scoring. Cody Vinnai stopped 18 shots for his first career playoff shutout.

Game 2- Friday February 20th at Woodstock

Woodstock 2, Norwich 1

Woodstock came out with alot more jump in front of the home crowd, Norwich on the other hand looked flat and the defence couldn't seem to stop turning the puck over in thier own end. Craig Thompson would take advantage of a turnover and give Woodstock a early goal at 4:39 of the first. Then referee Kevin Umansky decided he would steal the spotlight making horrible call after horrible call against Norwich, giving Woodstock several 5 on 3 advantages and if Woodstock had any kind of powerplay could have easily added on to thier lead but thanks to some strong goaltending by Norwich goalie Cody Vinnai and some great work by the Merchants penalty killers Woodstocks lead was kept at 1-0. Before the end of the first Woodstock would take advantage of Norwich lackluster D as Kevin Lanni scored on a 2 on 1 after a nice feed from Travis Horvath to take a 2-0 lead. Woodstock had several more chances in the second period but were turned aside by Vinnai. Norwich would finally show signs of life in the third period they would get several chances to score but were turned aside by Woodstock goalie Chris Lee. At the Halfway mark of the third period Justin Bremner would bring Norwich within a goal on a wrister that beat Lee up high. The rest of the night Chris Lee would turn aside every Norwich shot as Woodstock would hang on to tie the best of seven series up at 1 with a 2-1 win.

Game 3- Saturday February 21 at Norwich

Norwich 3, Woodstock 0

Early on in this game physical play seemed to be the way this game would go, Powerplays would be the story of the night as Woodstock had several 5 0n 3's early but could not capitalize on them. Fortynine seconds into the second period Sean McLeod would break the ice putting Norwich on the board puting one past Woodstock goalie Chris Lee. Ten minutes later McLeod scored another beauty beating Lee high to go ahead 2-0. Tom Brady would fininsh of the scoring for Norwich on a goal mouth scramble with eight minutes left making it 3-0. Cody Vinnai picked up his second shutout of the series stopping 18 shots. It was the third straight game this year going back to the regular season that Woodstock has been shutout in Norwich and in 5 games in Norwich this year has only scored twice. Game 4 goes Tuesday night in Woodstock at 7:30.

Schedule for the remainder of this series:

Game 4- Tuesday February 24 at Woodstock 7:45pm

Game 5- Friday February 27 at Norwich 8:00pm

Game 6- Saturday February 28 at Woodstock 7:30pm

Game 7- Sunday March 1 at Norwich 7:30pm

The Other Niagara West Semi is Simcoe against Aylmer, Simcoe has won the first two games, the first one 8-6, and the second game last night 5-3. Game 3 goes tonight in Simcoe at 7.