Chiefs Survive In Double Overtime

The Sandtrap Chiefs, facing elimination from the 2004 Playoffs, stayed alive with a 7 to 6 double overtime, shootout victory. The Semi Final win forces a third and deciding game against the Dartmouth Alpines, the winner to advance to the Lake City Cup Final. The Chiefs jumped out to a 2 to 0 lead on goals by Mark Walsh, at 14:54 and Roddy MacCormick at the 12:00 minute mark of the 1st period. Alpines' Todd Parker popped his first of three 20 seconds later and followed that up with his second at 8:49 to end the period tied at two. Sandtrap opened the scoring in the 2nd at 16:44 on a goal by Paul Wright, his third of the Playoffs. Dartmouth tied it at three on Darren Welsh's goal at 13:40. The seesaw game continued with Chiefs' Gord Dickie scoring his Playoff leading eighth goal, only to have Scott MacKinnon reply with a powerplay goal for the Alpines at 7:39. A minute and 34 seconds later the Dartmouth Alpines took their first lead in the game, Dave Fader doing the damage. A late penalty to the Alpines, 1:34 remaining in regulation time, gave the Chiefs a chance to tie the game. Mark Walsh' s second goal of the game just 6 seconds into the powerplay notched the game up at five. At 6:49 of a 10 minute sudden death straight-time overtime period, the Chiefs took a too many men penalty. With the clock running straight-time, Sandtrap tried to get as many faceoffs as they could. The Alpines used their one timeout to stop the clock with a faceoff in the Chiefs zone. Sandtrap were able to kill the penalty and the first overtime period ended still tied at five. The game now was going to be decided by a shootout, as to League Rules. Each team selected five players each to shoot one at a time. Dartmouth chose to shoot first, Darren Welsh was stopped by Chiefs' goalie Jason White, Paul Wright scored for Sandtrap, giving them a 6 to 5 lead. Scott MacKinnon failed to score on the Alpines second shot, while Chiefs' Mark Walsh scored, his third of the game. Alpines' third shooter was Todd Parker and converted to narrow the score to 7 to 6. Alpines' goaltender David Howell stopped both Shane Gibbs and Roddy MacCormick, while Jason White stopped Glen MacDonald and Jay Washington to give the Chiefs a 7 to 6 victory.

In the earlier game Thursday night the T.J. Devils took on the Secunda Mariners in Game One of their Semi Final. Both teams used call-up goaltenders, Scott MacDonald, of the HPA Flyers days, for the Devils and Dan Uberoi for the Mariners. Scott MacDonald was welcomed back in the League as Secunda peppered him with seven first period goals, on root to a 8 to 2 win. Mariners' Keifer House not dressed for the game, got a four goal performance out of Chris Kelly, including a shorthanded goal. Steve Widmeyer popped a pair, along with Andy Clark's 6th of the Playoffs and Scott Pellerine for the Mariners. The Devils missing some key players as well; Rhail Arsenault, Derek Joseph and Benny Kirton, had their scoring done by Steve Kinch and Dave Roode. The Devils went 0 for 4 on the powerplay. Game Two of this series takes place Sunday at 7:00pm at the Halifax Metro Centre followed by Game Three of the Dartmouth Alpines and the Sandtrap Chiefs.