BRANTFORD, ONT – The Brantford Titans began the final week of the regular season on Thursday as they welcomed the Cambridge Redhawks to the Gretzky Centre. Titans entered action just one point behind Pelham for the 8th and final playoff spot. Carter Vicente made his 4th straight start for the Titans while Brendan Balcar got the call in net for Cambridge.
The goal scoring got started early in this one as Adam Stipan would finish off a beauty passing play by the Titans to give them the 1-0 lead just 3:48 into the contest. Tyler Crisostomo and Ethan Szabo would collect the assists. The Redhawks would get a fairly quick answer thanks to Kaden Schneider who buried his first of the season to tie the game at one just four minutes after Stipan gave Brantford the lead. The Titans would get the only power play of the opening period but could not convert as the aggressive penalty kill of the Redhawks stood tall. It would be tied at one after twenty minutes with the Titans leading in the shot department 11-8.
Early in the second, the Titans would get another opportunity on the power play but it turned out to be a nightmare. Miscommunication behind the Titans net between Vicente and the defence would result in Cameron Fries having a wide open net to shoot at, to make it 2-1 Cambridge just 1:41 into the middle period. A couple minutes past the midway mark of the second, the Redhawks would turn it over behind their net resulting in a pass from Joseph Pizzoferrato landing on the stick of Simon Otako who would beat Balcar for his second of the season. Just twenty-four seconds later, Adam Stipan would get in the way of a point shot in his own zone and the puck would bounce out to neutral ice giving Crisostomo an open runway to the net and he would fire it blocker side on Balcar to give the Titans their second lead of the night. The Brantford Titans would add one more as they would continue to put on a clinic with their passing. Crisostomo would find Stipan who would find Frank who would find the back of the net as he outwaited the goaltender and finished on the backhand. Titans would lead 4-2 after forty minutes. They outshot Cambridge 28-14 through two periods.
The third period would begin with a ton of penalties as four total penalties were handed out at the beginning of the final frame including a double minor for kneeing Cambridge’s Andrew Grant. No power play goals would be scored though and we would get back to 5 on 5. The first goal of the third would come off Ryder Simpson’s stick to cut the lead to one. It would be 4-3 Titans with 8:56 to play. Brantford would get a quick answer though as Ryan Scriven would force a turnover at the Cambridge line, give it to Kyle Henneberry who would send it back to Scriven to make it 5-3 Titans. Ethan Szabo would add an empty netter for his 29th of the season to seal it with 57 seconds left. 6-3 would be the final and the Titans would outshoot the Redhawks 43-22.
The Brantford Titans collect 2 huge points and for the time being move into 8th place in the Eastern Conference.
Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aokEG1ZMKd4
