The Elora Mohawks finished off the Windsor Clippers in their best-of-five second round series, winning both games this week to complete the series sweep.
Elora won a low scoring Game 2, beating the Clippers 6-4 in Windsor last Tuesday night, and then won a wild back-and-forth shootout in Game 3, ousting the Clippers 13-11.
In Windsor for Game 2, Elora went up two goals early before Windsor turned the tables and tied the score at 3-3 after 40 minutes of play. Jordan Godin put Elora up a goal early in the third before Windsor's Trevor Learn tied the game at 4-4 with 11 minutes to play.
Brady Heseltine put the Mohawks ahead for good with just under four minutes to play, while Jordan Denny tacked on an empty-net goal with 15 seconds remaining.
Jake Weidner, Evan Benham and Mark Pfohl added a goal each in the win, while Ricky McGarr made 30 saves on 34 shots to pick up the victory in goal for the Mohawks. Erik McLaren suffered the loss, stopping 58 of 63 shots.
Returning to Elora for Game 3, Windsor came out with a desperation in their play and jumped on the Mohawks for a quick 2-0 lead - Jeff Riviat scored on two of the Clippers' first four shots to put Elora back on their heels. The Tribe righted the ship with goals from Heseltine and Kyle Dobbie in a 59 second span, but Windsor scored less than a minute after Dobbie's marker to re-take the lead.
Elora rolled off four goals in 4:29 to take a 6-3 lead into the intermission, but that was only the start of how wild things were going to get.
Windsor opened the second period by scoring five goals in the first 10:47 of the frame, turning what was a three-goal deficit into a two-goal lead. Dobbie responded with a pair of goals to tie the game, but Windsor's Travis Boomer put the Clippers back in front again right off the face-off from Dobbie's fourth goal. Elora responded immediately, as Heseltine netted the third of his four goals on the night a scant 13 seconds after Boomer's goal - sending the teams into the second intermission tied at 9-9.
After a relatively calm start to the third period, Elora scored a pair of goals near the midway point - Godin and Dan Keane tallied just over two minutes apart to give the Tribe a two-goal lead with 9:07 to play in regulation. Rather than go down quietly, Windsor fought back once again, as Boomer and Devin Humphrey scored on consecutive shots against McGarr to tie the game at 11-11.
With the clock ticking down, Heseltine put the Tribe back in front to stay with his fourth goal of the night. Matt Hummel then scored a short-handed goal into an empty net with 57 seconds to play to secure the win.
Following Game 3, Mohawks head coach Dean George said he was glad Elora was able to accomplish their goal of sweeping the Clippers since they had no desire for a return trip to Windsor.
"I'm pretty pleased with how we played during this whole series," he said. "Tonight was one of our best offensive efforts all year. We got a lot of really good looks and some good rips, and the ball was falling for us. I think it also showed that no matter what happened we were willing to fight back."
George pointed to how the Tribe was able to dominate the fight for loose balls as the game wore on. That was key to Elora finally finding a way to hold on to the win and finish the series.
"Late in the game when we were protecting that one-goal lead, we picked up three loose balls in one stretch and that was crucial for us," he said. "We kept positive on the bench and stuck to our game plan. Everyone knew we didn't want to make another trip to Windsor."
Penalty problems once again played a role in making the final two games of the series close, as Windsor had a combined 12 powerplays in Games 2 and 3 - including going 3-for-8 in Game 3. It was also a topic that George said he and the other coaches have address the team about and will work towards improving during practice before the conference finals.
"We'll have three practices before the next series starts, and we will go over some of those mistakes again and try to fix them," he said. "Some of them came from guys trying to do too much and not using their teammates enough."
When asked about where his confidence in McGarr was, given how he struggled in two of the three games against Windsor and had a few shaky moments against Oakville as well, George admitted the game was probably his goalie's worst of the season but was proud of how he held it together when things mattered most.
"We have a lot of confidence in Ricky, and I like that he can let in bad goals but when it comes down to crunch time in the third period he's there to hold the fort down for us," he said. "It's not always how many goals you give up but when you give them up. I'm also impressed with how (Dan) Humphrey came in and picked us up while Ricky got his composure back."
Elora opens the OLA Western Conference finals against the Six Nations Rebels on Wednesday, July 21, at 8 p.m. in Ohsweken. Game 2 of the series is slated for Saturday, July 24, at 8 p.m. in Elora.