DAVIDSON—Davidson Cyclones busted the Balcarres Broncs last Tuesday to advance to the Senior A South Semi-final against the Bethune Bulldogs.
Cyclones goalie Mark Zoerb shutout the Broncs to give his team the 5-0 win in Game 3 of the best of three-game series.
Cody Danberg (Pat Cey and Kyle Bortis) scored in the first minute of the game to put the Cyclones up 1-0.
While on the powerplay four minutes into the second period, Cey, from Zach Sim and Bortis, scored to give Davidson a two-goal advantage. Less than a minute later Carter Smith, from Derek Allan, padded the lead to 3-0. With eight minutes left in the period Bortis (Cey and Danberg) scored the Cyclones’ fourth unanswered goal of the game, ending Broncs’ goalie David Spooner’s night in net. The goalie change failed to turn the game to Balcarres’ favour. Bortis got his second goal of the game while the Cyclones were on the powerplay.
This would be the last goal of the night. The third period remained scoreless and Davidson skated away with the 5-0 win.
The Cyclones outplayed and out-hustled Balcarres throughout the game. The Broncs were noticeably out of gas and Spooner, who turned away 66 shots in Game 1 showed he is mortal.
“I think they wanted to try and win it in Balcarres the night before,” Cyclones coach Jason Shaw said.
This go-for-broke approach to Game 2 in Balcarres Feb. 16 cost the Broncs. Balcarres had a 2-0 lead late in the first period before Carter Smith, from Brett Ward, put Davidson on the scoreboard with 15 seconds remaining.
The score remained 2-1 well into the second period before Balcarres scored again to take a short-lived 3-1 lead. Seconds later, Brett Siroski, from Colton Allan, scored to close the gap. The Broncs came out in the third period with an early goal while on the powerplay for a 4-2 lead.
It looked as though the Broncs were on their way to a win and about to sweep the Cyclones out of provincials. Davidson, who had outshot Balcarres 32-17 by the end of the second period kept firing and wore Spooner down.
Sim scored first and then Cey had the tying goal. With three minutes remaining, Smith potted the go-ahead goal and Jason Schneider had the empty netter with 19 seconds remaining for the 6-4 win.
The Cyclones were in Bethune Sunday for Game 1 of the best of three South Semi-Final series. Game 2 is in Davidson this Thursday.