Mohawks upset Xtreme in series opener

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This article was published 14/02/2019 (1896 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Mitchell Mohawks scored a dramatic 4-3 victory over the Springfield Xteme Thursday night in Mitchell in the opening game of their Hanover Tache Junior Hockey League quarter-final series.

Seth Doerksen, assisted by Brycen Wiebe and Andrew Stopko, scored the winning goal with only six seconds remaining in regulation.

Third place Springfield (15-8-1-0) were considerable favourites going into the series with the sixth place Mohawks (7-16-1-0). But the Mohawks have been playing some of their best hockey of late, splitting their last four games of the regular season, which included a 1-0 loss at Springield on Feb. 2 and they then doubled the Steinbach Huskies 6-3 in their final regular season game.

In last night’s game, the two teams were deadlocked at 1-1 after the first and 2-2 after 40 minutes before Springfield took a 3-2 lead in the third on a goal by Tyler Chapko. Nolan Peters tied it for the Mohawks midway through the third, setting the stage for Doerksen’s last second winner.

Colton Unger and Ryan Friesen had the other Mitchell markers while Matthew Penner made 34 stops in the Mitchell net to pick up the win.

Although the series started in Mitchell, Springfield retains home ice advantage and they will host the next two games in the series at Oakbank including Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and Monday at 7:00 p.m.

Meanwhile, the other two playoff series will also hit the ice on Saturday as Lorette will host Grunthal at 8:00 p.m. at Ile des Chenes in the first game of that series while Steinbach will entertain the St. Adolphe Hawks, also at 8:00 p.m., with the Hawks leading that series 1-0.