For the second consecutive night, the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks fell by one goal to the Durham Thundercats in their WOAA Sr. “AA” quarterfinal series.
Durham took Game 2 by a score of 4-3 to take a 2-0 series lead.
The game got off to an inauspicious start, as Durham got on the board just 19-seconds in, when starting goaltender Richard Harris made a save on a point shot, but the rebound dropped right on the stick of Trevor Hughson, who had an open net to make it 1-0.
The Winterhawks answered right back, with Brent MacDermid setting up Lauchlin Elder on a two-on-one rush and the rookie forward had a tap-in to tie the game 1-1 at 3:16.
Durham would score two quick goals to jump out to another lead, first Jim Hutchinson was left alone in front of Harris and converted a pass from Bill Terpstra to make it 2-1.
On the power play just over a minute later, Randy Cox found a rebound at the side of the net and deposited it past a helpless Harris.
The Winterhawks would get one back late in the period on the power play, as a Trevor Smith point shot deflected off of Trent Hawke and past Durham netminder Gatlin Burt.
Terpstra would restore the two-goal Durham lead at 4:19 of the second period when he curled out of the corner and cut to the front of the Winterhawks net undefended and beat Harris to make it a 4-2 game.
Miles MacLean would bring the home crowd to their feet with 41-seconds left in the period, taking a cross-crease pass from MacDermid, outwaiting Burt and burying the puck in the top corner for the power play marker to make it a 4-3 game after two periods.
The Winterhawks pressed for the equalizer, but couldn’t come up with it in the 3rd period, falling 4-3 on the night.
Game 3 in the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Friday, February 9 at 8:30 p.m. in Durham.
Game 4 will be in Port Elgin on Saturday, February 10 at 8 p.m.
with files from winterhawks.net
