Victorious Saturday Matinee for the Merchants

By Mark Stehlin

The Brooklin Merchants packed up their gear and made the trek to Collingwood on a nice mid-summer Saturday afternoon. They had a date with the Cruise in their second to last final regular season game. The Merchants came into the game with a 12-2 record while the Cruise have had a rough season and came in at 3-12. At the final buzzer, the scoreboard read 16-7 for the road team to move them to 13-2, two points ahead of the Six Nations Rivermen for first overall.

Head coach Ryan Degerdon and assistant Mark Debrone have continuously stressed the importance of winning each period. The Merchants accomplished that with scores of 6-2, 5-4 and 5-1. They won the shot battle as well by a margin of 61-54. Lukas Coote in net, took the win while the Cruise started with Mitchell Wagner and subbed in Quinton Greenfield.

The duo of Parker Pipher and Will MacLeod started off the scoring for the Merchants who were up 2-0 just 1:10 into the game. Scott Reed with his first, second and third of the season propelled the visitors to a comfortable 6-2 lead after the opening frame.

The Cruise came to play and made the second period much closer. The teams traded goals and chances through that middle frame. MacLeod scored his 36th of the season while call-up Dale Faubert notched his first. Score after two periods was 11-6 in favour of the Merchants en route to another win.

It was all Merchants in the third as newly acquired Alex Marinier scored twice early in the second. The visiting side locked the game down defensively to cruise to a 16-7 win to regain top spot in the league.

Scoring – Duncan (0,2) Cairns (0,1) Renaud (1,2) Kent (0,1) Carrigan (1,1) MacLeod (3,0) McCrory (1,1) Elliott (1,0) Marinier (2,1) D Pipher (0,3) Pullera (0,2) Faubert (1,0) Volkov (1,0) reed (3,2) Tucker (0,1) P Pipher (2,4)

The four playoff bound teams all play their final regular season games on Sunday. The Merchants host Owen Sound at 4 pm, a win will guarantee them top spot and a first round playoff series with the NorthStars who are in fourth, four points behind Hamilton in third. It appears that the Rivermen and the Bengals will battle in the other first round playoff series.