The McLean & Dickey Orillia Terriers found the win column on Saturday night after suffering back-to-back losses last week.
The Jr. C Terriers thumped the Midland Flyers 6-1 in front of around 150 fans at their temporary home, Brian Orser Arena.
Terriers’ forward Kory Lund was the first on the board just over a minute into the first period when he sniped a pass from Josh Brown past Flyers’ goalie Cameron Allen.
Brown was on the score sheet again eight minutes later, capitalizing on a power-play opportunity, scoring his 14th of the season on a wrap-around.
“We got a lot of chances in the last two games, we were just snake-bitten a bit,” Brown said. “To get out in front tonight and to get that momentum early was good.”
Before the first period was over, forward Jayden Murison blasted a one-time feed from Devon Edmonds at the right face-off dot past Allen to make the score 3-0 for the home squad.
In the second period, the Flyers did everything possible to flip the momentum, including drawing the Terriers into two fights.
The first was between Terriers' 6' 170-pound defenceman Cameron Carruthers and Flyers' 6'6", 240-pound forward Liam Norman.
“It all happened fast,” Carruthers said. “It brings the energy of the game up for sure.”
Minutes later, Terriers' 6'4", 210-pound defenceman Kaden Washkurak engaged in the rough stuff with Flyers' 5'9", 165-pound defenceman, Ruben Van Berkel.
“We played these guys in the first round of the playoffs last year,” Carruthers said. “It’s a bit of a rivalry.”
The fisticuffs gave the Flyers enough energy for forward Ryan Graff-Sakasov to win a puck battle in front of the Terriers' net and bash one past goalie Reid Spinola to cut the home team's lead to two.
The Flyers' comeback effort fell short in the third period, despite the third tilt of the night between Terriers forward Ty Snelleman and Flyers forward Marcus Stolte.
Lund scored his second and third goals of the game in the final frame, earning the first hat-trick of his four-year junior career. Defenceman Brock Muise also scored his first of the season on Saturday night.
“It was a long time coming for me,” Lund said. “It’s nice to get that one in my last year of junior.”
The Terriers, now 8-4-0-1, will return home to the Rotary Place on Saturday, Nov. 19, when they host 11-1-0-0 Stayner. Newly named Terriers’ captain Dylan Palomaki says the team is really looking forward to getting back in their home barn after equipment failure forced them out of Rotary Place for almost a month.
“It’s a lot smaller of a crowd here than it normally is at Rotary,” he said. “I find the crowd is much more engaged at Rotary and amped up.”
Palomaki says it’s going to take 100 percent effort from everybody to take down the North Carruthers Division leading Siskins on home ice Nov. 19.
