Oakville Tigers prepare for the Semi Finals

It was a week ago today when the Oakville Tigers eliminated Chaminade in the Quarterfinals.  It was a must win situation and the Oakville Tigers came out ready to play. 

The Tigers scored the only goal in the first period when Dulle gets the puck from a face-off in the offensive zone and passes to Farina.  Farina centers the puck to Zach Mitchell who shoots and scores.  It was 1-0 Tigers at the end of the first period.

In the second period, Chaminade scored 3 goals and the Tigers found themselves down by a score of 3-1.  But with :58 seconds remaining in the second period, Mitchel wins the face-off to Farina.  Farina takes the puck up the boards and centers to Charlie Freshman who is there for the tip-in and scores.  The Tigers now only trail by a score of 3-2.

The Tigers came out fired up in the 3rd period.  During a line change, Harvatin dumps the puck in the corner, Nichting picks up the loose puck and passes to Andrew Kovacich who takes the puck behind the net and scores on a backhanded wrap-around shot.  The game is now tied at 3.  But the Tigers weren't finished.  Deep in the offensive zone, Mitchel wins  a face-off to French who shoots the puck.  Farina crashes the net for the rebound, shoots and scores and the Tigers are now beating the Red Devils 4-3.  Chaminade was forced to pull their goalie late in the 3rd period and gets a face-off deep in our defensive zone.  Kovacich wins the face-off, clears the puck out of the zone and and passes up through the defense to Nichting who skates it in and scores an empty net insurance goal.  The Tigers win game 2 by a score of 5-3 and force a mini game 3. 

The mini game is 10 full minutes of regulation play.  The winner moves on to the Challenge Cup Semi Finals.  There was a lot of fast-paced back and forth action when the Red Devils win the puck at center ice and end up with a 2 on 0 situation and the man with the puck is the leading goal scorer for Chaminade.  He shoots the puck and Zach Jost denies #77 with a huge save.  With just over 2 minutes remaining, Hassler tips the puck up the boards to Farina who skates it in.  He has Nichting going with him up the center.  Farina passes the puck under the stick of a defender to Nichting.  Nichting turns to settle the puck and with his back to the goalie, passed the puck back to Farina who fires the puck in the net.  The Tigers take a 1-0 lead.  There was 2.2 seconds remaining on the clock and the face off was deep in the Tigers defensive zone.  With the scramble for the puck, the Red Devils trying to score and tie the game to force a shootout, and the Tigers trying to clear and end the season for the Red Devils, the puck gets knocked loose in front of the net.  Jost is there for the initial save but the puck gets knocked loose again and Brendan Nichting, while down on the ice, clears it from in front of the crease.  The time runs out and the Oakville Tigers win the game 1-0 and advance to the Semi Finals.

There are 4 teams remaining in the fight for the Challenge Cup.  Oakville (5), Lindbergh (3), SLUH (2), and CBC (1).  Oakville will take on CBC in this best-of-2 series.  The first game is this Thursday 02/21/13 @ 6:40.  And the second game is Saturday, 02/23/13 @ 6:00.  Both games will be played in Chesterfield at Hardees Ice Plex.  If the teams are tied in points after the second game, they will play a 10 minute regulation mini game to determine a winner.  If the teams are still tied after the mini game, it will go into shootouts until a winner is determined.

Let's fill the stands this Thursday and Saturday and show our support for our Oakville Tiger Varsity team when they take on CBC.  GO TIGERS!!!!!!!