After surviving the first two games of their opening round WOAA playoff series with Shallow Lake, the Elora Rocks must have thought their dreams had come true in Game 3 last Friday night.
The Crushers showed up and actually attempted to play hockey.
Elora got scoring from four different sources as they scored a 4-1 win over the Crushers, completing the three-game sweep of the first round series.
Without the goon show from the first two games of the series, the Crushers kept the game close for almost 30 minutes before the Rocks pulled away with a three-goal run midway through the second period.
The teams were tied 1-1 after the first period, as Elora played the first 10 minutes of the game like they were expecting a repeat performance of the first two games. Once they raised their level of play, they increased the workload of Shallow Lake goalie Andrew Smith. Absent from the first two games in the series, Smith kept the visitors close with a number of solid saves against the Rocks.
He couldn't keep everything out of the net, as John Lunney scored a powerplay goal to open things up. The Crushers' Chris King tied the score late in the first period, taking a feed from behind the Elora goal to snap a shot past Cam Crawford.
That would be it for the Crushers on the scoreboard, as Crawford played a steady game the rest of the way and was only tested a handful of times after King's goal.
It was the defensive effort that Shallow Lake turned in that kept Elora off-balance, but Pat Shantz's goal at the 13:52 mark set the Rocks back on the right path. After that go-ahead goal, Elora scored two more in a two-minute span to take control of the game.
Fraser Young and Jeremy Machin added the remaining goals, while Rich Colwill, Jordan Fair (2), Lunney, Matt Snider, Mike Brito and Josh Taylor added assists.
Following the win, Rocks coach Kevin Lobsinger was actually pleased to see that the Crushers had changed their tune following the collective debacle that he witnessed in the first two playoff games.
"I guess they wanted to play hockey tonight, and when they play like that I think they're capable of making a lot of noise in the 'A' playoffs," he said. "We waited for the stupidness to start - like the old joke we came ready for a fight and a hockey game broke out."
In spite of gaining the sweep and escaping the first round relatively unscathed, Lobsinger was a little disappointed that Shallow Lake didn't stick to playing hard-nosed hockey in the first place.
"If every game had been like Game 3, I think we'd have been much better prepared in moving on," he said. "But on the plus side, you get a guy like Fraser who comes out and scores a big goal for us ... that really gives a boost to us when we can get production from every line."
Shantz was in agreement with his coach's sentiment, saying the Crushers displayed some class by going out on a high note but he was also happy to have the series over.
"We're going to see a totally different team in the next round, one with more speed and skill," he said. "I think we've got enough talent to handle that. We're a good enough team and we can find ways to win, whether we have to gut it out of blow someone out."
The Rocks will open the second round of the playoffs at home on Friday, Feb. 12, against either the Durham Thundercats or Ripley Wolves. Those teams were tied 2-2 and played the deciding fifth game in their series on Tuesday, Feb. 9.
In the other WOAA North series, Shelburne finished a first-round sweep of Palmerston, while Saugeen Shores rallied from an 0-2 deficit to beat Lucknow 5-0 in Game 5 last weekend.
In the South division, Tillsonburg, Monkton and Lucan-Ilderton all advanced to the 'AA' side, while Petrolia and Milverton were to play a fifth game in their series on Tuesday as well.