The Saugeen Shores Winterhawks have fallen behind early in their WOAA Sr. AA semifinal series with the Mapleton-Minto 81's.

Mapleton-Minto scored twice in the 3rd period to cement a 5-2 win in Palmerston on Friday night.

The 81's opened the scoring at the 7:45 mark of the 1st period, when Andrew Coburn snuck in behind the Winterhawks defence, took a breakaway pass and beat Blake Sinclair to make it 1-0.

Just 34-seconds later, Scott Tregunna found himself behind the net with the puck and walked out in front and stuffed the puck past Sinclair to quickly make it 2-0.

The Winterhawks couldn't solve 81's netminder Jason Hamilton and Mapleton-Minto took a 2-0 lead to the dressing rooms after the 1st.

Mapleton-Minto jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the 2nd period when an ill-advised pinch by a Winterhawks defender turned into an odd-man rush for the 81's, with Brent Cochrane converting.

The zebras took over at that point, with the penalties coming fast and furious. Josh Jackson, Andy Mitchell and Brendon Haefling all took penalties of questionable merit within moments of each other, putting the Winterhawks on an extra-long 5-on-3 penalty kill.

Despite the disadvantage, Sinclair was outstanding in the Winterhawks net, making numerous point-blank saves, killing off all three penalties.

The 81's then took a cross-checking minor and the Winterhawks finally broke through, with Brent MacDermid blasting a one-timer past Hamilton to make it 3-1.

Again, the referees dictated the game, as Nick Quaid threw a beautiful hip check on an 81's player and was called for interference plus an additional unsportsmanlike conduct minor, putting the Winterhawks on yet another full two-minute 5-on-3.

Sinclair and the Winterhawks penalty killers were outstanding, killing off the disadvantage.

The penalty kill boosted the Winterhawks, as they moved to within one as Brett Brophy took a point shot that was deflected in front by Trent Hawke to make it a 3-2 game.

Another penalty call, this time on the 81's, put the Winterhawks on the powerplay heading into the 3rd period, where they appeared to tie the game, but Hamilton was able to kick the net off before the puck entered the net and the referee waived off the goal.

Just moments later, the 81's began to pull away as Joel Martinelli took advantage of a turnover at the blueline to go in alone on Sinclair, deking out the Winterhawks netminder to make it 4-2.

Keegan Calder would add one late for the 81's to make it a 5-2 final for Mapleton-Minto and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Game 2 in the series is tonight Saturday at The Plex at 7:30 p.m.

with files from winterhawks.net.