The Haliburton County Huskies have their backs against the wall, down 3-0 in their first round Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) playoff match-up with the Newmarket Hurricanes.
The blue and white dropped back-to-back games March 7 and 8 and lost a heartbreaker March 10 to put them in a major hole.
Speaking before the post-season puck dropped last weekend, Huskies bench boss Jordan Bailey said it would mean the world to this franchise to deliver a big win for the community. While the Huskies have made playoffs in each of its five seasons playing in Haliburton County, the furthest they’ve gotten is the eastern conference finals, which they lost to the Trenton Golden Hawks last year.
“We want to get over that hump and win our conference. We haven’t gotten there yet, we’ve been close – so the message to the guys has been let’s try to do it for the fans,” Bailey said.
The team got off to a rough start in game one March 7, dropping a 3-1 decision on the road in Newmarket. Chase Yanni got the home side off to a great start, breaking the deadlock at 9:14 from Connor Haynes and Simon Wang to put the blue and white in a hole.
Isaac Larmand, the Huskies top goalscorer in the regular season, evened things up on the powerplay a couple of minutes into the middle frame, scoring at 2:12 from Chase Del Colombo and Nate Taylor.
That was as good as it got for the visitors, though, with Haynes potting the game-winner 12:20 into the second and Marcello Giorgi adding a late empty netter with a minute to go in the third. The Huskies rallied off 31 shots to Newmarket’s 33 and went 1-4 on the powerplay. Goaltender Owen Edwards made 30 saves.
It was one of the biggest crowds of the season inside S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena March 8 and the Huskies looked likely to send their fans home happy after two periods. B Carson Durnin scored early in the first, at 6:23, from Kieran Raynor and Del Colombo, with Josh Hutton making it a two-goal game 18:05 into the middle period, with apples going to Raynor and Liam Oravsky.
After stopping 26 shots through the first two frames, Edwards could do nothing to prevent the Newmarket onslaught in the third. Wang tilted the ice, bringing the Hurricanes back into the game with just 16 seconds played in the period, with Yanni tying things at 12:44 and Nathan Phillips helping himself to the go-ahead tally at 16:43.
The Huskies were outshot 16-7 in the third and 42-34 in the game.
The boys found themselves behind after just 54 seconds on Tuesday, but rallied late in the period with goals from Larmand and Carter Petrie – giving them a lead to protect heading into the second. Newmarket rallied four straight in the final two frames to claim a 5-2 victory.
Thursday’s tilt (March 12) in Minden could be the Huskies last of the season. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. Game five, if required, is March 14 in Newmarket; game six will be back in Minden March 15, with a 3 p.m. puck drop; with game seven back in Newmarket March 18.
