MULTIMEDIA

Rob Bumbaco
postgame

Daniel Sisca
postgame

Kevin Tompkins
postgame

Larry Herrington
postgame

The Waxers rolled over and handed a victory to the host Couchiching Terriers and along with the loss it also marked the end of their unbeaten string which was at nine games heading into play at Orillia.

The first period was a generally sloppy affair as both squads seemed to have difficulty getting passes to connect and if they were connecting they were perhaps less than optimally placed. The Waxers broke the ice finally at the fourteen-minute mark when Joel Kitchen finished off a tremendous rush to the net bypassing or outmuscling a Terrier defender attempting to cut off the lane. Assists on the scoring play were awarded to Ryan Bayliss and Jim Ulcar. The period would conclude with no further scoring, however, netminder Tom Lawson did make a couple of big saves to preserve the lead the Waxers had at the time.

After the Waxers went down a man early in the second period they capitalized just past the two-minute mark of the period to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Brett Barrer blocked a clearing pass by Couchiching at the Terrier blueline as he was in forechecking and that enabled the Waxers to gain a scoring opportunity that concluded with Ian Malcolm finishing off Barrer's feed for the shorthanded goal. That goal was Malcolm's 38th of the season as he continues to lead the team in scoring.

Approximately five minutes later the Waxers had a powerplay opportunity of their own and took full advantage to take a seemingly formidable 3-0 lead. Mike Clarke had made it a nice play at the point to evade a Terrier forechecker and then found Daniel Sisca all alone who calmly drove the net and fired a shot through the legs of the Couchiching netminder from close range. Ulcar was also awarded an assist on that goal, his second helper of the night. Sisca's marker was his 18th of the season as he continues to enjoy a stellar rookie campaign.

However, the Waxers were unable to fend off two Terrier goals before the second concluded and the score was 3-2 Waxers after 40 minutes. Lawson was sharp in the early part of the period as he made one stop in particular that helped preserve what was a 2-0 lead at the time.

The third period in a nutshell was all Terriers as they capitalized on seemingly every scoring opportunity while the Waxers weren't able to muster up an answer. Three consecutive Couchiching goals put the Terriers in front 5-3 with seven minutes remaining in regulation time. Chris Petracco would cut the lead to one when he scored his 17th goal on a powerplay from Bryan Lachapelle with two minutes remaining. An empty-net goal by the Terriers would complete the scoring.

The Waxers were badly outshot in the contest, 65-32 overall but the overall scoring chances while perhaps tilted in the Terriers favour weren't nearly as lopsided as the shots on goal might indicate.

The Waxers next game is Friday night at Centennial Arena at 8:00pm when they host the Stouffville Spirit. EDITOR