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Eagles tie NPHL final series with gritty effort
Barb Toker
for Smoky River Express
The NPHL Championship Series is now a winner-take-all affair following a 3-2 home-ice win by the Lakeland Eagles over the Grande Prairie Athletics, March 22 in McLennan.
The Eagles took control early, dominating the first period with their physical presence and overwhelming the Grande Prairie defence to grab a lead that they never relinquished.
Al Anderson opened the scoring for the Eagles at 13:07 of the first after the Eagles forecheck had the Athletics team running around in their own end.
The Eagles went to the dressing room two goals up after Travis Chalifoux buried the feed from Tyler Shantz behind the A’s goalie Dave Larson with just 43 seconds remaining before the break.
“Lakeland came out physical,” Athletics coach Ed Widdfield conceded after the game. “They took the body and we didn’t respond.”
GP looked much better after the first intermission, using crisp passing and speed to keep the play in the Eagles end.
Scott Taye brought the visitors to within one at 12:20 on a goal assisted by Shane Mudryk and Kelly McLeod. The A’s outshot the Eagles16-7 but heroic work by Eagles’ goalie Kyle Shantz had the A’s offense shaking their heads and seemed to rejuvenate the Eagles attack. Al Anderson Jr. restored the Eagles two-goal lead at 16:00 of the second with assists going to Travis Cunningham and Rocky Collins.
The Athletics made it interesting in the third, again outshooting the home team by an 11-5 margin.
Jordon Bombier’s goal at 16:00 set up a dramatic finish, but the A’s couldn’t solve goalie Shantz despite having pulled Larson for the extra attacker.
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Lakeland Eagles and Grande Prairie Athletics faced off on March 22 in McLennan. With the series in favour of the Athletics 2-1, the Eagles had to win the game to avoid playoff elimination. McLennan won the game by a score of 3–2.
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