BRANTFORD, ONT – The Brantford Titans returned home to host game 3 of their first round series against the Ayr Centennials. The Titans took games 1 and 2 on the road in Ayr and brought their 2-0 series lead back to the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre. Carter Vicente got the call in goal for the Titans while the Centennials countered with Elliot Hartwick.
It would be the visiting Centennials controlling most of the play in the opening period as they would get set up multiple times in the offensive zone. They would also get two power plays as the Titans would take a couple of holding penalties in the opening frame. The only goal scored came off the stick of Austin Keleher as he broke in alone down the right side of the ice, went to the backhand and tucked it past Vicente, giving Ayr the 1-0 lead. Blair Krawchyk would collect the lone assist. The Centennials would outshoot the Titans 12-4 in the opening frame.
In the second, Ayr would continue to fire everything at Carter Vicente but #30 in white and gold continued to be a wall in goal. Titans would find their legs midway through the middle period as Ethan Szabo scored his 4th goal of the season to tie the game at 1. Kaleb Frank would collect the only helper on Szabo’s goal. Titans would get into penalty trouble late in the period as Jack Pancoe would get called for slashing at 15:38 and Seth Vreugdenhil was given a double minor for kneeing at 17:19. Ayr would operate on a 5 on 3 power play for 19 seconds but they could not solve Vicente as he would help his team escape the middle frame, even at 1. Shots after 40 minutes favoured Ayr 24-12.
To the third, the Titans found the back of the net for their first lead of the game at 10:29 as Quinton Kim-Lemay was set up perfectly in the left circle for the rebound and he beat Hartwick to make it 2-1. This power play goal was assisted by Kyle Henneberry and Lucas Muhn. With desperation on the side of the Ayr Centennials, they continued to pour everything on goal and they were finally able to beat Vicente for a second time as Mitchell Ferras batted the puck out of mid air to tie the game at 2 with 1:40 left in regulation. The last 1:40 would be uneventful as the two teams would head to overtime for the second straight game.
In the extra frame, both teams would trade chances but the goalies didn’t bit as they were willing to lay everything on the line to help their team to victory. Until…Kyle Henneberry would stop at the half wall, find Kaleb Frank in the slot and Frank would roof the puck on Elliot Hartwick to give his team a 3-2 overtime win. Henneberry and Takacs would pick up the assists on the overtime winner. Final shots on goal would favour the Centennials 37-20.
The Brantford Titans now lead this best of seven quarterfinal matchup three games to none and have a chance to advance to the second round for the first time in franchise history. Game 4 is on Sunday but the time to ‘to be determined’.
Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKSZufXZDxc
