Winterhawks Force Game 6, News (Saugeen Shores Winterhawks)

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Mar 10, 2023 | Winterhawks News | 883 views
Winterhawks Force Game 6
Lauchlin Elder scored twice, including the game winning goal as the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks won again with their season on the line.

Elder notched the go-ahead goal with 8:53 remaining in the third period as the Winterhawks held on for a 5-3 win over the Ripley Wolves in Game 5 of their WOAA Sr. "AA" semi-final series on Friday night in Ripley.

It was a bookend game for Elder, who opened the scoring just 27-seconds into the game, taking a centering feed from Miles MacLean to make it 1-0 Winterhawks.

Ripley answered back at 6:16 of the first, as a turnover behind the net allowed ex-Winterhawk Adam Alexander to wrap it around and jam the puck behind Winterhawks netminder Jeff Flagler.

The Winterhawks returned the volley at 12:38 of the first, when Mike Fiegehen picked up a hard rebound off the back boards and hammered a slap shot past Ripley goalie Jason Hamilton to restore the Winterhawks lead. Trevor Smith and Justin Donnelly assisted.

The Wolves evened things up again in the final seconds of the first period after a goal mouth scramble, which touched off a slight disagreement between the two sides.

Ripley came out and took the lead in the second period, scoring five minutes into the middle frame.

Once again showing their intestinal fortitude, the Winterhawks battled even when Hamilton charged out of his net and mishandled the puck, allowing Fiegehen to send a centering pass to Donnelly, who had a wide open net to tie the game at 3-3 at 12:03.

That score held into the 3rd period, when the Winterhawks found themselves in penalty trouble, with the Wolves picking up a five-on-three advantage early on. 

The Winterhawks penalty killers were outstanding, limiting Ripley's chances until the Wolves took a penalty of their own on a dangerous hit from behind.

Ripley again found their way onto the power play approaching the midway point of the period, but the penalty kill again came up huge and Flagler made several excellent saves to keep the Wolves from getting ahead.

Once it was even, Elder came over the boards and beat Hamilton from the left side to give the Winterhawks the 4-3 lead.

MacLean added the insurance marker at 15:54 when he took a cross-ice feed from Luke Pither and fired a shot into the top corner past Hamilton to make it 5-3 Winterhawks.

Ripley pulled the goalie but couldn't get anything past Flagler to make it a 5-3 final for the Winterhawks.

After two wins on enemy ice in Ripley, the series now shifts back to The Plex for Game 6 tonight [Saturday] at 9:00 p.m.

Ripley holds a 3-2 series lead, but the Winterhawks will be looking to force a deciding Game 7.

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