By Jake Dobson “Voice of the Saints”The Halton Hills Bulldogs took game one of the best of five series with a 11 - 4 victory over the Newmarket Saints. For the second time this season the Bulldogs jumped out to a 4 - 0 lead on their home floor and in the end the lead was insurmountable. The combination of home fans and past playoff experience was the reason the Bulldogs were able to start so fast and once the Saints finally got things going it was too late. While the offense was strong it was the Bulldogs defense and goaltending that earn the credit for this victory. Mike Cregan was very strong in goal and the defense pitched in with four short handed goals in the victory.
The Saints lost their composure at times as they were guilty of six unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, including three to Shawn Beer which concluded with a game misconduct. His availability for game two is now in the hands of the officials as the Saints could now be without two of their leading goal scorers as Jacob Donato continues to rehab from an upper body injury suffered at the end of the regular season.
Halton Hills boasts the league’s leading regular season scorer but relied on balanced scoring to take the victory. Pat Saunders did contribute but if the Saints can hold him to three points a game all series it will be enough for victory. In a game that saw the Saints down by 8 goals at one point there are some positives going into game two Wednesday night in Newmarket.
In the third the teams were even as the Saints got rid of the jitters and played the same style of Lacrosse that saw them win 14 regular season games. Newmarket finally broke through the Halton Hills defense in this period and has been the better team in the third period for both games against Halton Hills this season. With some more discipline, hard work and commitment to strategy the Saints can still win this series. It will be a completely different story for Newmarket when they get their first crack at Halton Hills at home where the Saints went 7 - 3 during the regular season.
The playoff action moves to Newmarket on Wednesday night at the Ray Twinney Complex at 8pm. Come out and support your Saints as they try to even the series.
GO SAINTS GO
