Brick Oven to face Eldo in town hockey finals

Bacchanale’s miracle on ice ends in shootout loss

It has been a solid run for the Bacchanale in the post season but it ended Tuesday night in the semifinals of the town league hockey playoffs.
The Bacchanale came into the post season seeded seventh out of eight teams and shocked the world, handing the second seeded Last Steep squad an upset loss in the opening round.
The win earned them a trip to the semifinals to face the Brick Oven. The Brick closed the season in third place and received a boost, both physically and spiritually, when Reverend Tim Clark joined the team for the post season.
After killing a penalty early in the first period, the Brick scored first after a pass found Ben Preston skating up ice. Preston took the puck to net and beat Bacchanale goalie Shawn Harrington top shelf for a 1-0 Brick lead.
The Brick built a 2-0 lead a minute later when Meredith McNamara dug the puck off the boards to fire a shot at the Bacchanale net. Harrington made the initial save but James Brennan crashed on the rebound to stuff it near post.
The Bacchanale responded to the early Brick barrage scoring the next five goals.
Tom Collins started it off in the first period ripping a slap shot from the blue line that pinged off the post and then off goalie Jay Harris before trickling in.
Adam Chater opened the second period tying the game 2-2 scoring a short-handed goal off an assist from Collins. 20 seconds later Bacchanale GM/player Sneaky Pete Nichols netted a wrist shot through traffic and the Bacchanale was in the lead 3-2.
The Brick recovered to fire off a flurry of shots for a minute straight but Harrington made numerous saves to hold off the attack.
Collins put the Bacchanale up 4-2 following on a rebound to score his second goal of the night with four minutes left in the second period.
The Bacchanale then looked to put the game away for good in the closing minutes of the second. Nichols dove in front of his own open net to block a Brick Oven shot. The Bacchanale turned up ice led by Jeff Snyder. Snyder bum rushed the net and Harris came off his line to cut down the angle. The two players collided and Willy Coburn followed the play to slip the loose puck into the open net for a 5-2 Bacchanale lead.
The Brick Oven returned to their hustle style of hockey to close the second period with two quick strikes thanks in large part to the effort of Lori Frank.
Frank fired a shot off the skate of a Bacchanale player right to Tyler Hammer. Hammer took advantage of the redirect to score and cut the Bacchanale lead down to two goals.
Fifteen seconds later, Frank won the puck off the boards and dropped it to Clark at the point for the Holy Smoke slapshot to pull the Brick Oven to within one goal by the end of the second period.
Kent Preston led the Brick Oven defense in the third, breaking up two odd man rushes by the Bacchanale. Pittsburgh Pete Cook netted the game-tying goal midway through the third period and the two teams closed the game with six minutes of scoreless hockey to send it into overtime.
After five more minutes of overtime play, the two teams were still deadlocked in a 5-5 tie forcing the game to be decided by a shootout.
Collins and Hammer each scored in the first round but Harris made a save on the second Bacchanale shooter to give the Brick a one-goal advantage.
The next three shooters all scored but Harris made another save in the fifth and final round to seal the 8-7 Brick Oven win.
The Brick Oven will face the Eldo in the 2011 town league hockey finals on Thursday, February 24 at 8:45 p.m. at Big Mine Ice Arena.