The Hamilton Kilty B’s defeated the Welland Jr Canadians 4-1 at home in Game 2 of the Sutherland Cup playoffs on Saturday night.
Hamilton came out strong in the first period, out-shooting Welland 18-7. Both teams stood tall in their respective zones, keeping the score at 0-0.
The second period got a bit more intense as the two teams combined for eight penalties in the first ten minutes. Two pairs of roughing penalties were doled out, but it was Hamilton who first cashed in on the man advantage.
Nathan Phillips got his first of the post-season mid-way through the second. The B’s had the puck moving well in the offensive zone, Nathan Omeri found Dawson McKinney who whipped it across the circles to Phillips who wristed it home.
The Kilty B’s would sting again just 51 second later to make it 2-0. Benjamin Hofstetter picked up the puck just inside the blueline and fired it up into the top left corner of the net.
In the third period, Welland answered with a goal of their own seven minutes in.
Matthew Schlosser got the puck put on his tape by Adam Clark right in the slot and made no mistake, scoring to cut the deficit in half.
With just over eight minutes to play in the third, Nathan Omeri fed the puck right up the middle through traffic to Connor Haynes. Haynes walked into the zone and picked the bottom right corner of the net to give the Kilty B’s a 3-1 lead.
Aaron Chiarot finished it off with under a minute left, beating the goalie from his left side and making it a 4-1 final.
Hamilton now leads the series 2-0 and will travel to Welland on March 5 for Game 3 of the best-of-seven series. Puck drop will be at 7 p.m.
-Jarrett Matthews
