The Durham Roadrunners staved off elimination from the Greater Metro Jr. A Hockey League’s South Division final Friday night with a 5-4 shootout win over the Northumberland Stars at the Keeler Centre in Colborne.
Northumberland still leads the best-of-seven matchup 3-2 and has two more opportunities to advance to the Russell Cup championship series. Game 6 is set for Sunday at 9 p.m. at the Iroquois Park Sports Centre in Whitby.
Durham, meanwhile, has a number of local connections on its coaching staff and roster. Head coach is Dennis Sicard, assistant coaches are Fraser Adamson and Jason Brown and the team manager is Jaclyn Diminie.
Players include Baltimore’s Ben Hansen and Wescott Hansen and Port Hope’s Waylon Morris, Jack Duncan and Evan Brooking.
Friday night, the Roadrunners struck first in the opening period on a power play goal from Marquise Brown.
The Stars responded late in the second with unanswered goals from Dawson Hettiarachchi and Tristan Miron, who scored the go-ahead goal on the power play with just over a minute left in that middle frame.
Early in the third, Northumberland extended their lead as Miron struck again on the power play at the 44 second mark.
Jesse Aitken cut the deficit to one at 3:25 for Durham, which scored three straight to regain the lead. Brown tallied his second of the night at the 15:19 mark to tie the game before Ben Hansen put the Roadrunners in front with less than two minutes remaining in regulation time at the 18:16 mark.
Northumberland forced overtime with a power play goal with just 22 seconds remaining.
Neither team managed to break the deadlock in the extra frame, forcing the shootout. Daniil Tyurikov scored the lone shootout goal to secure the win for Durham.
Following Sunday’s contest, if a seventh-and-deciding game is required to settle the series, it will take place Monday at 8 p.m. in Colborne.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
