Windsor Royals emerge from weekend 2-1 in play-offs

The Windsor Royals came out of the weekend 2-1 in the play-offs.

The Royals had defeated the Blazers in the opening two games Monday, Feb. 18, in Sackville and Wednesday, Feb. 20, at the Hants Exhibition arena in Windsor before dropping a double-overtime 5-4 game Friday, Feb. 22. Friday's game was exceptionally chippy with seven minor penalties for roughing after the whistle called and four minor penalties for interference on the goaltender called.

The Royals, despite three goals from the team's leading scorer Dylan Shearer, fell behind 4-3 at 6:03 of the third period before Cody Hebb found an opening with just 36 seconds left to tie it at 4. In the first overtime period, the Royals out shot the Blazers 8-5, but the teams failed to score. It took a goal from David Nippard standing alone wide-open in front of the Royals net at 4:58 of the second overtime to give the Blazers a 5-4 victory, their first win over the Royals in nine playoff and regular season games this season.

In the Wednesday game, the Royals skated hard and were on top of an overwhelmed yet pesky Sackville team. Riley Lewis opened the scoring for the Royals with a nice shot from the right face-off circle at 7.08 of the opening period. Jeff Backman then followed with a power-play goal at 11:42 to give the Royals a 2-0 advantage after the opening period. Windsor took a decisive 3-0 lead at 6:50 of the second period on a beautiful goal by Ryan Gale who took a pass from Sam Webb in front of the net and rifled it home. Derek Rodrigues also assisted.

The Blazers then scored to make it 3-1 before Sam Webb replied 1:57 later and the Royals led 4-1. Sackville kept at it and the Royals defense broke down and the Blazers tallied with only six seconds left in the second period to trail 4-2 after 40 minutes. The Blazers came out strong in the third and despite some exceptional skating and crisp passing by the Royals, Windsor could not get that fifth goal. The Royals even rang at least two shots off the crossbar but couldn't get that fifth goal. Sackville then made the situation tense scoring with just 2:51 left in the third period to make the score 4-3 but no sooner did that happen, and Poplar Grove's Brett Mosher who has been an effective penalty killer and very steady this season scored just 12 seconds later to make the final 5-3. The Blazers out shot the Royals 11-9 in the final period, but Windsor held a game advantage of 36-30.

In the opening game of the series, the Royals scored a 4-1 win with Keith Burgess scoring a pair of goals as well as collecting an assist with single tallies going to Dylan Shearer and All-Star defenseman Jeff Harnish. The Royals came out strong out shooting the Blazers 14-4 in the opening period and leading 2-0 and then 3-0 after 40 minutes.

The Royals headed into the fourth game of their opening divisional semi-final series with the Sackville Blazers Monday evening Feb. 25.





Windsor Royals Top Scorers at conclusion of regular season:



1. Dylan Shearer – 26 goals and 35 assists = 61 points



2. Keith Burgess – 17 goals and 30 assists = 47 points



3. Cody Hebb – 18 goals and 20 assists = 38 points



4. Matt Milsom - 6 goals and 31 assists = 37 points



5. Jeff Backman - 12 goals and 22 assists = 34 points



6. Ryan Gale - 12 goals and 16 assists = 28 points