Redmen Back at .500 With Win Over Rock
The Brooklin Redmen hosted the Oakville Rock on a night of nostalgia featuring a pre-game ceremony honouring the 1988 Mann Cup winning team. The crowd appreciated a good representation of former Redmen players, coaches and executive on hand to celebrate the 30th anniversary of that six game series win over Coquitlam. The current version of the team was inspired and with a solid offensive output and strong defensive stand took the 12-9 win to earn a record of 4-4-1 to start the back half of the 16 game regular season.
The Redmen were led by Curtis Knight who exploded with five goals including a natural hat-trick in the middle frame. Mike Poulin took his spot in the Redmen net and played well limiting the Rock to two goals in the first and three in the second period.
The Redmen won the first period 4-2 including a diving shot off the stick of Connor Kearnen with less than a second on the clock. They maintained the lead outscoring the Rock 5-3 in the middle frame for a 9-5 lead after forty minutes.
The teams took turns going on three goal runs in the third period. The Redmen were strong and battled for the win in what can be described as their best all around performance of the season against a solid opponent who came in to the game with a respectable record of 5-1-1.
Other scorers for the Redmen were Dan Lintner, Ryan MacSpadyen, Adrian Sorichetti, Mitch McMichael, Ryan Keenan and Holden Garlent. Referees Roger Nurse and Mike Sullivan let the teams play calling three infractions on each team, including a five minute elbowing major to James Barclay. The Rock notched two short-handed and one on the power play, the Redmen scored twice with the extra man including one during the five minute major.
The Redmen travel to Peterborough on Thursday and will host Cobourg next Wednesday July 11 as teams start to position for a playoff spot down the stretch.