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WAXERS' GRUELLING WEEKEND
NETS FIVE OF SIX POINTS What the Waxers's head coach saw was a team that refused to quit. This was particularly the case after Sunday's heartbreaking 5-4 overtime road loss to the Aurora Tigers. What pleased Herrington was the way his club rallied from a three-goal deficit to force overtime before losing the game with just 37 seconds left. Nonetheless, the Waxers did earn a point from that game and added another four points after defeating the Shelburne Wolves in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. The Waxers tamed the Wolves 7-4 at Centennial Arena on Friday and 5-1 in Shelburne the following night. "We're happy with what happened. Our goal was to get six points. We fell a little short. But we could have had four based on the way we started out last night (Sunday). The guys worked hard to get that point," said Herrington. "It was a disappointing loss but our guys showed a lot of character. I think we're working on creating an identity for ourselves." THIRD GAME IN AS MANY NIGHTS
TAKES ITS TOLL "When you're killing penalties it's easy to kill off good penalties. But it's hard to kill off stupid penalties. That's what hurt us," hinted Herrington. "All four of their goals it was our fault for taking those type of penalties we refer to as S.O.S., stupid or selfish penalties." After the Waxers got a power-play goal from Kevin Tompkins early in the second period, the Tigers replied with another power-play goal to restore its three-goal advantage. But the Waxers rallied with extra-strength markers from Daniel Sisca and Mike Clarke and a goal by Ian Malcolm to tie the game at 4-4 through two periods. The Tigers won the game after a shot caromed off the backboards and went in off the skate of goalie Tom Lawson. Herrington conceded the stress of playing its third game in as many nights might have caught up with his forces. "The games we played Friday and Saturday wer physical. The guys were tired. We could have packed it in. But what they did last night, only good teams come back when they're down that far," said Herrington, whose charges played without the services of Chris Petracco (serving a two-game suspension for a fighting infraction on Saturday), Lawne Snyder (tendonitis on his elbow) and Ryan Bayliss (thumb injury). In Friday's game the Waxers jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead before the Wolves rallied with three unanswered goals to take a 4-3 advantage in the second period. But the Waxers replied with two unanswered goals before the period concluded and another two in the final frame to emerge with a 7-4 win. Jason Goldenberg scored twice while singles went to: Brett Barrer, Jimmy Ball, Malcolm, Petracco and Jim Stamatopoulos. Clarke earned four assists.
The Waxers held the upper hand in shots, firing 43 while surrendering 25. On Saturday, the Waxers jumped out to a 3-1 lead after one period and added two more in the third to skate away with a convincing 5-1 victory. Malcolm scored twice while Tompkins, Stamatopoulos and Joel Kitchen added one each. The Waxers outshot the Wolves 45-28. At 10-4-1-1 on the season (as of October 27th), the Waxers are tied with the Collingwood Blues for third place in the Provincial Junior A Hockey League's Central Conference.
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