Tigers Prevail In Overtime

By 250 Sports

It took the first overtme game in the RBC Royal Bank Cup to determine Ontario’s representative in the gold medal game of the Canadian junior A hockey championship in Prince George. Daniel Muchalsky pounced on a juicy rebound 2:21 in extra time to give the Aurora Tigers a 3-2 semi-final victory over the Pembroke Lumber Kings before 2203 at CN Centre. It was the Tigers forward’s leading 8^th goal of the tournament.

“I just went to the net and it popped right on my stick,” said Muchalsky who beat Lumber Kings goalie Paul Beckwith five-hole.

The two teams exchanged single goals in the first and second periods. A point shot from Matt Ryhmer got past Aurora goalie Tyler Gordon to five Pembroke a 2-1 lead for most of the middle frame. A questionable goaltender’s interference penalty put the Tigers on the power play and Mark Thorburn pulled the Tigers into a 2-2 deadlock with two and a half minutes left in the second period. Pembroke dominated the third outshooting Aurora 9-3 but failing to capitalize on several excellent scoring chances on Gordon.

“Good teams find a way to win,” said Aurora head coach Jerome Dupont.

“It was a hard fought battle they play us incredibly tough.” Pembroke handed the Tigers their only loss of the round robin.

The Central Region champions advance to the National title game at 7:30 Sunday night facing the winner of the Spruce Kings Camrose Kodiaks semi-final at 7 tonight at CN Centre.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us