The Wellesley Applejacks’ chances of making it to the Southern Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs next month faded a bit Jan. 23 after a tough 4-3 overtime loss to the Tavistock Braves. The team twice clawed back from deficits to tie it, but would not lead at any point.
Tavistock is the team to beat at this point, sitting eight points ahead of the Jacks in the Bauer Conference standings. In order for Wellesley to have a chance, they will need to win every one of the five games left in their season, with wiggle room for only one overtime loss. In addition, Tavistock would have to lose every one of their upcoming games.
“Mathematically we still have a chance of making the playoffs,” explained Wellesley coach Kevin Fitzpatrick, “But in reality it’s not likely. We really needed to win that game.”
The first period of last Saturday’s game opened with a bit of an uncoordinated effort from the Jacks, with the team turning over the puck a few times in the neutral and the defensive zones. Only five minutes into the frame, netminder Kurt Martin lost track of the puck for a moment behind the net and a crashing Tavi-stock player, Sean Leslie, pushed the biscuit past him for the game’s first goal.
The period would end 1-0.
The Jacks stepped up their play a bit in the second frame, but it was Tavistock that scored first, at 12:43. The goal came on a power play marker by Blair McKay on the tail end of a 5-on-3 opportunity with two Jacks in the sin bin. The two-goal lead lasted just over a minute, however, as the Jacks capitalized on a man-advantage of their own. Throughout the power play, Wellesley had impressive puck possession in the offensive zone and enjoyed some of their first real scoring opportunities of the game. Eventually Rob Hinschberger brought them back within one at 13:51, assisted by Chris Armstrong and Shawn Fitzpatrick.
The third period proved to be an entertaining one for the throngs of Jacks and Braves fans crowding the Wellesley Arena. It was a chippy affair, with the home team making a game of it at 11:12 when Pat Doyle (Ben Jefferies, Jake Albrecht) scored a shorthanded goal to make it 2-2.
Shortly thereafter, however, the Jacks were assessed a bench minor for too many men on the ice, sending the Braves to the power play for the sixth time. Just seconds later, things went from bad to worse when Doyle was given two minutes and a 10-minute misconduct for a head-contact infraction. Tavistock needed only another 11 seconds to go ahead 3-2 on a goal by Devin Berg.
“Two goals, including the winning goal deflected off our players,” noted Fitzpatrick. “They were wide of the net and in both cases our guys weren’t even looking at the play.”
With five minutes left in the game, the Applejacks looked down, but not out. They played aggressively, and it was all hands on deck when Eric Parr managed to net one with help from both Read Shantz and Doyle when the team was shorthanded, deadlocking the game a three apiece and sending the match into the extra frame.
In overtime, Tavistock mounted the more sustained pressure – shots were 4-2 – and dashed Wellesley’s come-from-behind hopes at 3:12 when Dan Kalbfleisch beat Martin.
Fitzpatrick noted that the disappointing prospects for this year’s playoffs are especially tough for those players who will be graduating from the team this year: Doyle, Armstrong, Chris Givlin and Rob Bolger.
“I was disappointed for them,” said the coach. “Those guys have really contributed to the program, they have done everything we have asked of them, and they deserved a better fate than what we have given them.”
Although the team still has a slim chance at coming back from behind, Fitzpatrick said that it will be a tough battle from this point.
“It was a pretty somber dressing room on Saturday, but we have two away games this weekend and there is still a chance for us to come back. We will just have to see what happens.”
The Jacks’ next home game is Feb. 6 against the Ayr Centennials.
