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The Citizen, 1987-03-18, Page 20PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1987. Brussels put on a valiant attempt to tie the game in the closing seconds of its consolation tinal against Lucknow at the Blyth Little Lions Novice tournament Saturday, but Lucknow’s goal tender got in the way of all the shots to preserve a 3-2 Lucknow win for the championship. Bulls win a squeaker Sports Brussels Novices lose close game in final BY LOIS Me ARTER It was playoff hockey at its best. The Brussels Junior Bulls travel­ led to Exeter on Wednesday night for the second game of their playoff series with a 1-0 lead in games. From the drop of the first puck, it was hooking, holding and interfer­ ence to no end but they continued to make their end-to-end plays without the referee’s whistle inter­ rupting. Play continued until there was 5:22 left in the first period and the “Duke”, Paul Robinson, blas­ ted the puck past the goalie to give Brussels a 1-0 lead. The remainder of the period was scoreless. Seven minutes of the second period had passed when Exeter beat goalie Pat Chambers to tie the game. In less than two minutes, Marty Rutledge scored on a pass from Tim Fritz and Mike Chapman to take the lead once more. Exeter came back with the tying goal at 5:05 and then scored the go-ahead goal with 1:58 left on the clock to endthesecondperiodwith a3-2 lead. The team seemed to be in second gear rather than high and play continued until 13:35 when Marty Rutledge was turning in front of the net to get in position and was hit by a sffot from Tim Fritz and Mike Chapman that deflected into the net, to give the Bulls a tie. Play continued until 8:48 when Exeter scored to go ahead and within 47 seconds added the second goal to their total. The team just couldn’t come up with any more goals with game ending 5-3 forthe Hawks. Ex-resident Bob Rowe picked up the 50-50 draw for the evening. BULLS BOUNCE BACK With the series tied at one game each, thestagewassetforgame three in Brussels on Friday the 13th but the date didn’t seem to influence the game. The teams were in good form and good 20 minutes of hockey followed but the Exeter goalie and Brussels’ goalie Jeff “Smiley” McGavin defended their territory well and spectators witnessed a scoreless period. Brussels had 12 shots on netwhile Exeter had 11 shots to show the closeness of the play. The second period had Exeter coming out and scoring the first goal just 43 seconds into the period. Itprovedtobetheonly goal of the period with the Bulls being out-shot 12-9 and not being able to beat the Exeter goalie. Brussels returned the favour in the third period with Tim Fritz scoring 37 seconds into the period on a pass from Kevin Ruttan and defenceman Bill Haines. Play continued until 11:10 and Bill Haines beat the visiting goalie and once more on a shot from the blue line to give Brussels the go-ahead goal. Exeter came up with the tying goal and with just 1:29 left in the period and neither team was able to score again forcing overtime to be played. The clock was set for 10 minutes and play commenced. Tim Fritz came up with the puck off the face-off and then reclaimed the puck on a pass from linemate Kevin Ruttan and scored just 23 seconds into the overtime. Goalie Jeff McGavin stood strong between the posts and held the Hawks off to give Brussels the 3-2 overtime victory. The visitors out-shot the Bulls 45-39 but goal-tending made the difference with a super game by Jeff McGavin. Brian Blackburn of Exeter took home the $115 pot for the 50-50 draw. OVERTIME DRAMA The stage was set for the fourth game back in Exeter on Sunday evening. The team stepped on the ice to a full house and tumultuous I noise which never let up for the remainder of the night. The twoteams were up for the game and after dropping the first puck, itwas obvious the referee wasn’t going to interfere in the game too much. End-to-end play took place until 12:17 when defenceman Paul Edwards blister­ ed a shot past goalie Rook to give Brussels a 1-0 lead. In a span of 2:27Tim Fritz was able to beat the goalie again on a pass from Mike Chapman and Marty Rutledge. The remainder of the period was scoreless with Brussels holding a 2-0 lead. Pre-novices win one, lose one Brussels pre-novices travelled to Clinton to face off against Goderich Friday night for their first game at the Clinton Tournament. It’s amazing to see how these boys have improved their hockey skills over the season, once again showing they knowhow to pass, check and skate. Every member of the team came home with either a goal or an assist, and Jamie Thomas who once again agreed to play in goal, got a shut-out for Brussels (15-0). Hat-tricks went to Goob (Steve) Machan, plus thtee assists; Andrew Exel, plus one After only 1:48 Exeter’s Steve Gould scored unassisted to put the Hawks back in the game. Exeter put the pressure on once more when Brussels defenceman Bill Haines was issued a high sticking penalty leaving the team short-handed. Forward Kevin Mc- Arter stole the puck from the Hawks and kept them at bay for mostoftheremainingminute of the penalty with some fancy puck handling and skating. Each team was kept off the scoreboard for the remainder of the period. The third period held the same brand of hockey but Brussels gave up their lead with only 3:44 remaining in regular play when Steve Gould scored his second goal of the game. The remainder of the game was scoreless forcing a 10-minute overtime period. An exhausted two teams re­ mained on the ice to play the 10 minutes with both goalies perform­ ing well and the tie remained at the end of the overtime period. The boys were given a rest as they flooded the ice and then returned to play a 20-minute, sudden-victory period. A rejuvenated Brussels squad came back out on the ice and rarely let Exeter out of their own end. They had played 6:14 when Kevin McArter (Squeak) beat the goalie on a rebound shot after defence­ man Paul Edwards had hit the goal post, giving Brussels the victory. Goalie Jeff McGavin who played super had 22 shots on goal while the Exeter goalie had 34 to stop. The two teams will be back in Brussels on Wednesday night (tonight) at 8:30 for the fifth game with Brussels holding a 3-1 lead in the best of 7 series. Brian McGavin was the lucky winner of the Split the Pot draw in Exeter and brought home $150 as his prize. assist; and Trevor Wilson, plus three assists. Chad McCallum got two goals as did Josh Beuerman, who also had two assists. Brett Fisher and Scott Clarksoneachgotonegoal. Jeff Finch had two assists, Corey Newman, two assists and Matthew Shortreed, three assists. Saturday night they returned to Clinton to take on Hensall for the firstgame in the Championship round. It wasn’t until halfway through the first period that all the shots on net started to count. Chad Continued on page 21 Brussels Novice team travelled to the Blyth Lions Novice Tourna­ ment on Friday. They opened tournament play against the Blyth Novice “A” team and lost 9-1. Randy Beuermann scored the only goal. The loss was a great improvement over the 17-0 trounc­ ing Brussels received from the same team early in the season. Brussels then moved to the consolation round of the touma- ent and met Teeswater. After Teeswater opened the scoring in the first period, Geoff Dalton got Brussels going in the second assist by Randy Beuermann and Dave Lewington to make the score 2-1 at the end of two periods. In the third Teeswater scored one but Brad (Bert) Mulvey scored two unassisted goals to end period 3-3. During the period Tom Pearson in the Brussels goal coolly handled a penalty shot from a Teeswater player. ...YA WANNA MAKE A KILLIN? The Classifieds offer a fast-moving market for buying or selling — the power source for knowing when to buy and when to sell! Move in for your kill, soon! CALL CLASSIFIED: 523-4792 or 887-9114 A five-minute overtime period was scoreless so a three-man shootout took place with David Lewington scoring the first goal, Brad Mulvey being stopped but Randy Beuermann scoring while Tom Pearson turned aside the final Teeswater attempt for a Brussels win. The consolation final against Lucknow was a very even and exciting game with end-to-end skating. Lucknow built up a 2-0 lead but Brussels got on the scoreboard with a goal by Brad Mulvey assisted by Randy Beuer­ mann and Jamie Smith. After Lucknow had scored again, Brus­ sels pulled its goalie with less than a minute left in the game and scored with Randy Beuermann counting from Jamie Smith and Brad Mulvey. After some more close chances to tie the game, time ran out with Lucknow winning the consolation trophy by a 3-2 count.