Home ice advantage? Check. Season sweep of Saugeen Shores and Durham? Check.
Undefeated regular season record? That remains to be seen.
Elora posted wins over Walkerton (8-5), Saugeen Shores (10-6) and Durham (12-2) last week to move to 18-0 on the season. It puts the club within two wins of a 20-0 regular season, but more importantly the win over Durham ensured the Rocks will be home for the duration of their playoff run.
Against the Capitals, Elora struggled to put their opponents away late in the game. Taking a 5-2 lead into the third period, the Rocks traded goals with the visiting Capitals to make the score closer than the game actually was. Walkerton scored their second goal five minutes into the middle frame to trim Elora’s lead to 3-2, but the Rocks put the game out of reach with four straight goals over the next 20 minutes.
John Lunney, Jeremy Machin and Rich Colwill led the Rocks with three points each.
Elora then welcomed Saugeen to town Friday night in anticipated match-up, but the game turned into a blowout nobody expected. Elora held a 3-1 lead after the first period and then saw their advantage balloon to 9-2 after 40 minutes of play. Saugeen came out strong in the third period, scoring four goals to make the score a little closer but they never really challenged the Rocks.
Mike Brito led Elora with four points, including a hat trick, while Lunney scored a pair of goals and Ryan DeBoer chipped in with three assists.
In Durham Sunday afternoon, the Rocks locked up home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs by routing the Thundercats for the second time this season. The game was close after the first period, as Elora held just a 2-1 lead at the break. Steve Walters scored 21 seconds into the second period, the first of six goals in the frame that allowed the Rocks to blow the game wide open. They added four more in the third period for good measure.
Rod Bauman scored twice and finished with five points, while Machin had a hat trick and collected seven points in total to lead the way. Brito also came up with five points in the win.
After Friday’s win over Saugeen, Rocks head coach Kevin Lobsinger said the lopsided victory didn’t tell him much about Elora that he didn’t already know. He added that their play in the second period against the Winterhawks was perhaps their best 20-minute stretch of hockey this season.
“Holding them to just one goal while we scored six times was huge,” he said. “We weren’t out there trying to send a message, but rather just to establish ourselves and show everyone that we’re playing playoff hockey right now.”
Lobsinger credited the team’s forwards for providing strong puck support and backchecking to help out with the defence, and said he only worried about the game becoming overly emotional near the end. Lunney had suffered a head check earlier in the game at the hands of Saugeen’s Tim Hammell, and Lobsinger was worried some of his players still had retribution on their minds.
“I think Saugeen didn’t want to get embarrassed in the third period, but I also think they scored goals while our guys were looking for payback on that hit against Lunney,” he said.
Brito echoed his coach’s statement about wanting to get playoff-ready, and said the whitewashing of the Winterhawks was just the product of the Rocks all being on the same page.
“We’re keeping things simple and doing all the little things well right now,” he said. “We wanted to force their ‘D’ into mistakes and get lots of shots on their goalies. Once we got that quick start, their goalies began to second-guess themselves.”
Both Lobsinger and Brito said that 20-0 was not as important as being ready for the playoffs, but with a perfect season dangling in front of them, the coach said it will be talked about at practice this week.
“The big thing was winning in Durham,” he said. “Now nobody can catch us for home ice, so we’ll talk about 20-0 at practice and go from there.”
Elora closes out their home schedule on Friday, Jan. 22, when they welcome the Shelburne Muskies for the second time this season. Game time is set for 8:30 p.m. The club finishes their regular season schedule a night later in Palmerston when they meet the 81’s. The puck drops at 8 p.m.