Playoff Picture Not Clear; Redmen Will Have to Watch and Wait

The Brooklin Redmen hosted the Oakville Rock in their regular season finale tonight and by virtue of a 12-9 loss will now be forced to scoreboard watch over the next few days to determine their first round opponent in the  MSL playoffs. The Redmen finished the season at 7-8-1 for third place and sit two points ahead of the Six Nations Chiefs who, with three games remaining, can potentially catch and pass the Redmen and drop them to fourth, setting up a series with the league leading Peterborough Lakers. 

Tonight's match started off well for the home side as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the Rock scored one to reduce the gap, the teams went to break with Brooklin up 2-1. 

The Redmen continued with a solid offensive attack to start the middle frame en route to a 4-1 lead at the 4:58 mark. The Rock also found their groove and rattled off six goals that period to four for the Redmen.  The Rock had the ball with three seconds on the clock deep in their end when Mitch Desnoo's teammates yelled at him to feed the ball up the floor to Jordan Magnuson, he made no mistake and scored on an empty net with under a second on the clock. Referees Mike Sullivan and Andrew Ecclestone conferred and after a brief moment signalled a good goal to give the Rock a 7-6 lead after 40 minutes. 

The home side scored early in the last period as Curtis Knight notched his second of the night just after leaving the penalty box. The Rock answered on a short handed goal before Colton Watkinson from mid-floor fed a streaking Dan Lintner with a laser pass and it was knotted at 8-8. The visitors were successful with three unanswered of their own for an 11-8 lead. Each side scored one more but it would not enough for the Redmen who were handed a 12-9 loss. 

Scorers for the Redmen were pairs for Lintner, Knight and Shayne Jackson and singles to Mark Matthews, Tanner Cook and Austin Shanks. Ecclestone and Sullivan called three minors against the Rock and four against the Redmen, the home side could not convert while the Rock had one short-handed and one on the power play.

Stay tuned to Redmen social media for playoff details and don't forget to sign up for the Redmen app on Apple and Google Play for all the latest.