The ‘Roos left the playoffs with a bang with back-to-back nail biting away games against the Williams Lake Stampeders, Feb. 8 – 9.
The Saturday night match was a game of tug-a-war, each team trying to advance on the other with neither ever managing to take more than a two point lead.
The Stampeders took the first two goals of the night, but the visiting ‘Roos quickly fired back with a goal of their own.
Only minutes before the end of the first period Joey MacDonald skated in with Waylon L’Heureux assisting, scoring Quesnel’s first goal of the night on a power play.
As the second period began the Stampeders seems determined to establish a firm lead, but the Quesnel boys were on the defensive and held the Stampeders at bay.
It wasn’t until 13 minutes and 15 seconds into the second period that the first goal was scored.
But this small victory was short lived as ‘Roo Ryan Hanes, with the help of MacDonald, scored the Quesnel’s second goal of the night soon after.
The ‘Roos tied the score 3-3 at 18 minutes and 58 seconds into the second period, leaving the Stampeders a very small window to advance before the buzzer sounded.
This small window was enough and the Stampeders skated in for two consecutive goals.
Entering the third period, now two goals behind, the ‘Roos quickly stepped up their game with goalie Ryan Madnerson saving shot after shot while his team mates brought in two more goals before the third periods end.
The first was scored by Hanes, assisted by Curtis Gassoff.
With only second left on the clock Gassoff, with the help of Coltin De Frais and Ryan Skinner tied the score 5-5, launching the game into overtime.
Five minutes and 21 seconds into overtime the game was decided when the Stampeders took aim and fired, the puck slamming into the net and ending the match with a final score of 6-5.
The ‘Roos followed this up with a Sunday afternoon match, that would be the deciding game as to which team would advance further into the playoffs.
The Stampeders took the lead in the first period, but netting only one goal.
This left a lot of room for the ‘Roos to advance in the next period.
It was a slow start in the second period.
It wasn’t until 11 minutes in that the first goal was scored.
This goal went to ‘Roo Alessio Tomassetti, unassisted.
‘Roo Hanes, with the help of Josh McDonald and Ashton Rai, followed up with another goal taking the lead for a short period of time.
Though before the clock had timed-out, the Stampeders scored another goal, tying the score 2-2 going into the third period.
As the buzzer called the players onto the ice for the third period it was Williams Lake that advanced.
One goal behind and the seconds counting down it was now or never for the ‘Roos if they wanted to take the win and continue in the playoffs. De Frais, assisted by Mitch Galbraith skated by their opponents to score the final goal of the third period at 19 minutes and 10 seconds in.
This tied the score 3-3, launching the Stampeders and the Kangaroos into yet another overtime match.
Try as they might the ‘Roos couldn’t hold the Stampeders back and two minutes in the Williams Lake Stampeders scored the final goal of the night to claim a 4-3 victory over the ‘Roos.
With the ‘Roos out for the season coach Win Winofsky took time to reflect on the teams work, expressing that while he would have liked to go one deeper into the series, overall he is pleased with the effort of the Kangaroos.
“I am pleased with the efforts,” Winofsky said.
“The guys did a good job with what we had, we were often short-handed when we travelled but we had a good core group of guys.”
Winofsky is hopefully for next season, explaining that the fans can expect to see many returning players and given the opportunity, Winfosky would enjoy returning to coach.
“I thought we were the better team,” Winofsky remarked on the final games against Williams Lake.
“We out-shot Williams Lake in both games.”
That’s all for now, good game.