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.
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