Classic tournament = classic battle, Cats defeat 77's: 3 to 1

story and photos by Ian Gibson

This was a game saver of a save!

Elliot Lake, Nov 26th, GMHL College Classic Showcase:  Great goaltending was definitely a factor in the 3 - 1 over the Oro-Medonte 77's here this morning.  The first period saw the majority of the play at the 77's end of the rink, well at least for the first five minutes or so.  The Cats then seemed to lay off a little, or the 77's were playing a little harder as the play went end to end.  With 7:42 to go the 77's started the ball rolling by getting one past Matt Perry after a nice pass to #9 Nick D'Avolio from #77 Adam Macbeth allowing them to go to the dressing room with a one to nil lead.

The lead was not long lived as the Cats started to claw their way back at the half way mark of the second with a tally from #16 Captain Matt Rogers assisted by #20 Jason Berlin and #2 Jake York.  The red light appeared again at the 2:06 mark when the Cats # 12 David Sefcik scored assisted by # 21 Edward Sedivy and # 11 Filip Kajba.  That ended the period with Cats ahead by one.

There was only one goal in the third which in this observers opinion is deserving of a complete description.  At about the 14:00 minute mark of the third the referees arm went up for a penalty.  #13 Roman Jurak saw the arm go up and started up the ice with the puck circling at his own blue line in order to allow goalie Perry time to get off the ice, once the sixth attacker was on the ice he did some dazzling stick handling to get the puck over the 77's blue line.  With the sixth skater on the Cats controlled the puck until 13:33 when #16 Matt Rogers scored his second goal assisted by #17 Branislav Jankovic and (who else) # 13 Roman Jurak.

Let us not forget that it takes a team to win a game and part of that team was the goalie #1 Matt Perry who made some outstanding saves to keep the Bobcats alive, well done Matt and well done Bobcats.

Action photos, note some of the hard work Matt Perry was tasked with: