Leafs force game seven with 5-4 come-from-behind victory
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
The Castlegar Rebels are quietly resting waiting for its next playoff opponent after disposing the Spokane Braves in five games.
The odds-on favourite to play the Rebels in the Murdoch Final is the Beaver Valley Nitehawks.
But the Nelson Leafs have a thing or two to say about who will be making the trip to the Sunflower City later this week.
Cameron Dobransky slammed in a centering pass from Colton Malmsten with less than three minutes remaining in the third period to snap a 4-4 tie and power the Leafs to a thrilling 5-4 come-from-behind victory in game six of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League Murdoch semi final Tuesday at the NDCC Arena.
The win evens the best-of-seven series at 3-3 with game seven Wednesday in Fruitvale.
“I was amazed that it went in at first,” said a beaming Dobransky from outside the jubilant Leaf dressing room.
“(Colton) Malmsten was right behind the net. We made eye contact and he made a great feed out to me . . ..” added the 17-year-old Pentictonite. “I’m pretty sure I had my eyes closed when I took the shot but it went in that’s the main thing.
“That’s the biggest high of my life right now.”
Beaver Valley coach Terry Jones was beside himself trying to explain what just happened.
After controlling his emotions, the veteran Junior B skipper had this to say about the collapse of his team.
“We were just (awful) in the third period,” Jones exclaimed. “We had two defencemen that could play. The rest of them were terrible.”
“And I couldn’t believe the effort,” he added. “Like (our guys) come out and play that soft in the third period of a game that could end it. We have a two-goal lead and we come back and we give them a goal. . . ..We give it to them. It’s just unbelievable.”
The Hawks looked to have this game in the bag and a trip to the next round of the playoffs.
Riding the leadership and goal scoring of Ryon Sookro, who bagged a goal and an assist to lift Beaver Valley to a 4-2 lead 49 seconds into the third period, all the visitors had to do was play out the period and the series was over in six.
But quicker than game announcer Gord Davis could announce the Beaver Valley power play goal by Arie Postmus, Colton Schell got the Leafs back to within a goal by sweeping a loose puck past Michael Vlanich. The Beaver Valley netminder had lost his balance after making the save giving Schell a wide-open net.
Despite the quick score by Nelson, Beaver Valley still looked to have just enough as the teams plodded though the third period.
That was until Dallon Stoddart streaked into the Beaver Valley end on a partial breakaway. Vlanich was equal to the test, making a remarkable save. But Stoddart’s effort seem to inspire the Leafs, who scored the tying marker seconds later when Evan J. Moir beat Vlanich from close range.
Two minutes later Dobransky completed the comeback with his third goal of the series.
“Motivation . . . positive attitude in the room. Nobody wanted to go home early,” Dobransky explained. “We want to be here until the middle of March. We want to go all the way and that’s what picked us up, made us continue on and comeback for another game.”
Connor Enright and Patrick Martens gave Nelson a 2-1 first period lead. Postmus scored for Beaver Valley.
In the second, Sookro on the power play and Derek Lashuk gave the Hawks a 3-2 advantage.
Nelson out shot the Hawks 29-25 with Marcus Beesley registering his third home-ice victory of the playoffs.
“So it’s come back down to again of who wants it the most,” Jones said.
Stay tuned Rebel faithful.
OVERTIME: Gavin Currie led the Leafs with two points in the game. . . .Nelson snipers Dustin Johnson and Joel Stewart did not play in game six. Johnson was suspended after receiving a game misconduct with 34 seconds remaining in game five. Stewart has left the team for person reasons said Leaf coach Chris Shaw. . . .Raymond Reimer also missed the game due to injury. . . .The Nelson Bantam Reps, off to Smithers in March for the Tier III Bantam Provincials, raised more than $900 during a fundraiser at Tuesday’s game. The team held a bake sale along with a paper-airplane toss into a passing new 2011 Ford Ranger truck. . . . The game attendance was 591. . . . At the end of the game while the Leafs were heading to celebrate the win with goalie Marcus Beesley, Colton Malmsten clipped Tyler Collins of the Hawks on the helmet with his stick. Collins was down on the ice for several minutes before leaving under his own power. No penalty was called.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
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