With a 3-1 victory over the Huntsville Otters at Rotary Place in west Orillia on Saturday night, the McLean & Dickey Orillia Terriers have a 3-0 series stranglehold on their first-round Provincial Junior Hockey League playoff opponent.
The feeling-out process of the series was clearly over once the puck dropped in Game 3. Neither team was willing to give an inch to the other until the Terriers found themselves in penalty trouble halfway through the opening frame.
The Terriers were able to kill off a two-man disadvantage thanks to several acrobatic stops from goaltender Aidan Jerry, who brought the 338 fans out of their seats several times Saturday night.
"You can never give up on a puck, especially in the playoffs," Jerry said. "I just take it one shot at a time and make sure to get in front of it."
Three minutes after the penalty kill, the Terriers flipped momentum to the other side of the rink as forward Noah Mountain outworked Otters' defenders to the puck. He fed it to a wide-open Dylan Palomaki who didn’t miss a golden chance alone in front of the net. He sniped the puck past Otters’ goalie Darian Willis for the 1-0 lead.
Palomaki credits both Jerry and Mountain for his first goal of the playoffs.
"Jerry stopped a couple tonight that I thought were 100 per cent in the net," he said. "He was flying across the crease and making some big saves."
The fatigue of playing on back-to-back nights (the Terriers won 2-1 in Huntsville Friday night) started to show for the Terriers in the second period. The Otters made the Terriers pay for a series of giveaways when defenceman Joshua Tabet scored off a defensive breakdown.
After sending four players to the box in the period, the Terriers got a power play of their own with under two minutes to play. The Terriers got pressure to the net and Mountain cashed in by pushing a rebound past Willis for his third of the postseason.
"He doesn't stop and doesn't quit on anything," Palomaki said of Mountain. "He is always on the puck, making good passes, and finding a way to put the puck in the back of the net."
Jerry arguably played his best hockey of the season in the third period, making several game-saving stops. While he steered away 38 shots on goal, he also took three penalties on Saturday night.
"After playing these guys three times in a row it gets a little emotional out there," Jerry explained. "Three penalties is not ideal and I need to work on being better than that."
Jerry says he usually feeds off the emotion of the game and uses it to better himself.
"There are times like tonight when I lose my composure a bit," he said. "Usually, the emotions of the game help me battle more."
With under six minutes to play, Jerry steered aside an Otters' breakaway chance that could have knotted up the score.
"Breakaways are a 50/50 play," he said. "As a goalie, you just watch the puck and trust your natural reactions and instincts."
Right after the critical save, Mountain once again beat an Otters' defenceman to the puck in the attacking zone. He then sent it to the top of the face-off circle where forward Devon Edmonds blasted it past Willis.
"I like to work hard for the team," Mountain said. "I know the guys are behind me and are going to work as hard as I am."
Mountain says setting up his teammates to score feels just as good as scoring the goal himself.
"Any goal we score is great," he said. "I just want to score more than the other team."
The Terriers head north for Game 4 in Huntsville on Friday night.
"We want to get this next one," Palomaki said. "It would give us more rest and allow us to recoup for whoever we may play next."
If the Terriers can't close out the series in Huntsville on Friday night. Game 5 would be back in Orillia on Saturday night. Game time would be 7:30 p.m. at Rotary Place.
