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Roos win shot count, lose game

The Quesnel Kangaroos lost a close game, 7-6 to the visiting Lac La Hache Tomahawks last Saturday.
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Justin Grouette

It wasn’t how they had envisaged ending the season, but the Quesnel Kangaroos lost their final regular season game 7-6 to the Lac La Hache Tomahawks.

“We doubled them in shots, we just couldn’t get them in,” ‘Roos forward Curtis Gassoff said of the 50 shot onslaught they fired at T’Hawks netminder, William Sellars.

“He’s really strong up top,” ‘Roos coach Win Winofsky said of Sellars.

In the third period alone, the Kangaroos fired 22 shots at the Lac La Hache netminder, but couldn’t keep pace with the Tomahawks on the scoreboard.

The ‘Roos did have their opportunities.

With Lac La Hache leading 5-4, the ‘Roos were handed a five-minute powerplay.

The ‘Roos swarmed the T’Hawks zone, but only managed one goal late in the powerplay to tie the score at 5-5.

The Tomahawks followed up with a powerplay goal of their own to take a 6-5 lead to set up a mad dash to the buzzer.

Down by a goal and with time running out, the ‘Roos pulled netminder, Ryan Manderson for the extra attacker.

The ‘Roos did manage a few shots on the T’Hawks net, but the Tomahawks bounced a puck off the boards to a forward loafing in the neutral zone for an easy empty-net goal and a 7-5 lead with a minute to play.

The ‘Roos didn’t give up and Justin Fulton scored to pull the ‘Roos to within one, but it was too little too late as the clock ran out to put the ‘Roos in the loss column for the second game in a row against the T’Hawks.

“They shut the door, they did a good job,” Winofsky said of the T’Hawks defence around the net in the third period.

Despite the lopsided shots on goal, the game was close from beginning to end, with neither team gaining momentum for an extended period of time

The ‘Roos outscored the Tomahawks 2-1 in the first period, thanks to goals by Rigby Burgart and Joel Boyetchko, but the Tomahawks came back in the second period and outscored the ‘Roos 2-1 to knot the score at 3-3 and set up the hectic final frame.

The Tomahawks managed 29 shots on Kangaroos netminder Ryan Manderson who made several spectacular glove saves throughout the game to keep the T’Hawks at bay.

“We played a good game,” ‘Roos coach Win Winofsky said.

“We didn’t play a bad game, just a case of too little too late.”