The Hamilton Kilty B’s defeated the Fort Erie Meteors 5-4 in overtime on Wednesday night in Game Four of the second round of the GOJHL Golden Horseshoe playoffs.
The first period was quiet with neither team lighting the lamp and Hamilton outshooting Fort Erie 9-5.
In the second period, Kyle Adamo received the warp around pass from Joseph Macchione and buried the opening goal, putting the Meteors ahead.
Minutes later, the B’s responded when they stole the puck deep in the Meteors zone. Justin Monteith tied the game at one on a great pass from Torin Hession in the corner.
Fort Erie took back the lead on the powerplay shortly after that. Macchione ripped a shot off of the crossbar that became a juicy rebound for Brad Ditillio to tap in and give Fort Erie a 2-1 lead.
The Meteors then made it 3-1 on a long wrister from Liam Loftus, a puck that Egorov typically swallows up.
Hamilton would counter in the third period on a goal by Dawson McKinney, his fourth of the playoffs. McKinney was left all alone on the doorstep and made no mistake with the puck, finding the five-hole to cut the deficit in half.
Fort Erie’s Macchione continued his busy night on the stat sheet by roofing a puck past Egorov to give his team a 4-2 lead with under 11 minutes to play in the game.
Some slick passes by the Kilty B’s netted them a goal a minute later, this time by Brodie McIntyre to make it 4-3.
Then, with 45 seconds left in regulation and the goalie pulled, Hamilton lost the draw in the offensive zone and Fort Erie dumped the puck. The play rattled around the neutral zone for a few seconds before Matthew Duarte chipped the puck deep into Meteors territory. Nathan Phillips got the puck in the middle, fired a shot that was stopped but Duarte was there to score the tying goal with 15 seconds left.
Just over three minutes into overtime, Nathan Phillips ended the game as he shovelled home the puck on a pass from Connor Haynes and Dawson McKinney. Phillips and Haynes have combined for 10 goals and 13 assists over nine playoff games thus far.
With this win, the B’s take a 3-1 series lead are win away from advancing.
Game Five of this best-of-seven series will take place on Thursday, March 23 at the Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.
-Jarrett Matthews
