Whatever their justification for playing the way they did, the Shallow Lake Crushers are one loss away from exiting the post-season in their first trip in franchise history - and it can't happen soon enough for the Elora Rocks.
Elora took the opening two games of the series last weekend, winning Game 1 7-1 and Game 2 7-2 to hold a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five opening round series with the Crushers. The Rocks went unchallenged on the scoreboard in both games, but each time out Shallow Lake was looking to extract a physical toll from Elora.
Game 1 opened with both teams going up and down the ice, getting a feel for each other - in Shallow Lake's case, it more more of a literal feel. They took every opportunity to hit Elora's players they could, including a number of late hits and some activity behind the play.
Brandon Young opened the scoring for Elora when he batted home a Travis Martin shot just over seven minutes into the game. Rich Colwill made it 2-0 just over two minutes later, and that's when the real fun began.
The teams combined for 18 minutes in penalties in the last 8:56 of the first period, and Shallow Lake got on the board during one of their powerplay chances when Scott Luckhardt banked home a shot from along the goal line on a delayed penalty call against Rocks goalie Joe Amlinger.
Martin put the Rocks back in front by two just before the end of the period when he blew a shot between the legs of Crushers goalie Brendan Shipley. Elora added two goals in short order to open the second, as Steve Walters and Aran Myers scored 67 seconds apart to make it a 5-1 Elora advantage.
After that point, Shallow Lake amped up the cheap shots and forced referee Scott Green to start making calls. But while the Crushers were being shown the gate for their work with sticks and hands, the Rocks were being tossed out by Green for questioning some of his calls and non-calls. Mike Brito and Myers were both shown the door late in the third period after openly questioning a Green non-call.
In the end result, Elora finished with 63 minutes in penalties while Shallow Lake had 55. The more important tally came on the scoreboard, as Jeremy O'Donnell and John Lunney added late goals in the second to provide the final margin. Assists went to Josh Taylor, O'Donnell, Pat Shantz, Colwill, Lunney, Rich Shantz and Jeremy Machin.
Game 2 in Shallow Lake played out in a similar manner, as the Rocks built a 6-2 lead after two peroids before having to endure another Crushers meltdown. Shallow Lake wound up taking 59 minutes in penalties, and wound up having four players (Luckhardt, Mike Rocca, Josh Ironmonger and Jeremiah Henderson) ejected by game's end. In contrast, Elora took just 39 minutes in penalties, almost cutting their time in the box by half from Game 1.
Lunney, Brito (2), Ryan DeBoer, O'Donnell and Jeremy Machin scored in the victory, while Walters (2), Matt Snider (2), Machin (4), Fraser Young, Ryan Gerber, Lunney and Taylor added assists.
Following their Game 1 win, Rocks head coach Kevin Lobsinger said they just tried to take everything that happened in stride, adding that if the Crushers wanted to act the way they did Elora will be more than happy to make them pay on the scoreboard.
"If that's how they're going to act, there is nothing we can do about it, and if they really want to put us on the powerplay the whole series, we'll put them away," he said. "We made the move to sub Cam in for Joe near the end of the game because their goalie wanted to fight Joe. Once Cam went in, nobody came near our crease - I think this game showed we can take care of ourselves."
Lobsinger felt that if the Crushers had been able to put a few more points on the scoreboard things might not have degenerated into the mess Game 1 became, but if that's how the rest of the series is going to play out then Shallow Lake shouldn't expect any sort of mercy from the Rocks.
"It's too bad they have to resort to crap like that, but once we get out of the first round we're going to see teams playing hockey that actually want to win," he said. "We want to get this done in three games and see what happens from there."
Machin was in agreement with his coach, saying Elora came in to the series expecting to get run at all over the rink by the Crushers.
"That's what we expected - they were dirty and in our faces, but we just have to get rid of them and onto something else," he said. "That wasn't good hockey at all but we can't afford to look past them."
When faced with a team not interested in playing the game but rather trying to take out as many bodies as they can, Machin said Elora's depth will come into play and be a big factor - both now and down the road.
"It's tough to play teams like that but if guys get hurt or have to step up and defend themselves, we've got guys who can step in and play," he said.
Game 3 is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 5, at 8:30 p.m. in Elora, with Game 4 slated to go in Shallow Lake on Saturday, Feb. 6, if necessary. Also if necessary, Game 5 will be played in Elora on Wednesday, Feb. 10 (game time 8:30 p.m.).