Fans were treated to a wild game at Iroquois Park tonight as the Redmen and the Excelsiors went to sudden death overtime to settle this one. The Redmen were held off the board for 46:08 seconds as both goalies and defenses played well. Derek Hopcroft was the hero as he scored fifty seconds in to the sudden death overtime to settle the game at a 7-6 win for the Redmen who take a 1-0 lead in the best four of seven semi final series.

 

The Excelsiors started Anthony Cosmo and the Redmen stuck with Aaron Bold. Cosmo managed to hold the Redmen off the board through not only the entire first but the second period as well; it was 2-0 Brampton after forty minutes. This was after the Excelsiors took a 1-0 lead just 11 seconds in to the game.

 

The Redmen solved Cosmo with 6:08 off the clock in the third on a short-handed marker that saw Nick Cotter dive across the crease in front of Cosmo and deposit the ball behind him. Kiel Matisz with his first of two on the night tied the game for the Redmen just two minutes later. It was soon after that the fireworks started. The Excelsiors reeled off three in one minute and eight seconds including a penalty shot taken by Dan Dawson after a Redmen defender closed his hand on the ball in his crease, 5-2 for the visitors with seven minutes left. The maturity and patience of the Redmen began to show as they went on a three goal unanswered run of their own in less than a minute and it was 5-5 with 1:46 on the clock. Bold made his way to the bench in favour of an extra attacker for each of the goals. Wayne Colley made a gutsy call as he pulled Bold again this time with the tie headed to overtime. The 10 minute full overtime did not settle anything as each team scored once to tie the game at 6-6.

 

Referees Mark Gardonio and Matt Robinson called a 10-minute intermission followed by a 20 minute sudden death overtime period. Derek Hopcroft must have had some late night plans as he scored with 50 seconds off the clock to send the decent sized crowd into a frenzy as the Redmen took the 7-6 win and 1-0 series lead.

 

Besides the win, the other good thing about the game for the Redmen was that as leading scorer Shawn Williams and Hopcroft were being fiercely covered, players like Kiel Matisz, Nick Cotter and Kyle Buchanan were able to get a hand in the scoring. For Brampton, ex-Redmen Mike Hominuk scored three goals

Gardonio and Robinson assessed 22 penalty minutes to the Redmen and 14 to the Excelsiors. The Redmen scored one short-handed and the Excelsiors scored twice on the man advantage.

 

Game two in the series is at the Powerade Centre on Friday August 5 at 8 pm and game three is back at Iroquois Park on Monday at 8 pm.

 

Scoring

 

Brooklin - Cotter (2), Holman (1,1), Buchanan (1,4), Hopcroft (1), Matisz (2,3), Williams (0,3)

 

Brampton - Dawson (1,2), Harasym (0,1), McClure (1), Corbeil (0,1), Walters (1,1), Resetarits (0,1), Hominuk (3)