Mount Forest Patriots sweep Mitchell Hawks aside
MITCHELL – Brody Leblanc netted his second game-winner in as many games as the Mount Forest Patriots completed a four-game sweep of the Mitchell Hawks in Provincial Junior Hockey League playoff action Thursday at the Mitchell Arena.
The victory gives the Patriots a Pollock Division quarter-final series win.
While the Patriots scored the first goal of the game, Mitchell led 2-1 at the end of the first period before Mount Forest scored the lone goal of the second. The Patriots shot ahead in the ninth minute of the third period, but the Hawks pulled even 37 seconds later.
Leblanc hit for the series-winner on an unassisted effort with 1:45 to go in the third.
Jaxon Gawel, Aaron McGuirk and Seth Huygen scored the other goals for the Patriots while Leblanc had two assists and Jack Micone had one.
Callan Ferguson, Hayden Hessel and Connor Lockhart had a goal apiece for Mitchell. Assists went to Callum McMann, Jonathan Tenhag, Tristan Bouchard and Talbot Geiger.
The Patriots outshot Mitchell 45-26 and both teams went 1-for-3 on their power plays.
Marshall Nicholls had 23 saves for Mount Forest while Joshua Jacklin had 41 saves for the Hawks.
Mount Forest finished the regular season second in the Pollock Division at 32-7-3-0 (W-L-OTL-T) while Mitchell was seventh at 11-26-3-2.
The series was the third Pollock quarter-final to finish in a sweep as the first-place Hanover Barons ousted the eighth-place Goderich Flyers and the fourth-place Fergus Whalers defeated the fifth-place Walkerton Capitals.
The third-place Kincardine Bulldogs lead the sixth-place Wingham Ironmen 3-1 in the other series.
The semifinal pairings are to be decided by the winner of the Kincardine-Wingham series.
Mount Forest is to play Kincardine if the Bulldogs win that series and the Patriots are to play Fergus if Wingham wins its quarter-final series.
- Guelph Sports Journal