LUCAN – The Lucan Ilderton Jets are tied 1-1 in their first-round WOAA Senior Men's Hockey League playoff series against the Clinton Radars after a weekend split.
Clinton won the first game of the series 5-4 Saturday night in Lucan but the Jets bounced back with a 5-2 victory in Game 2 Sunday in Clinton.
Sunday's game saw Jeff Silver, one of the Jets' best players, suspended two games for a verbal altercation with Clinton fans.
Jets general manager Rob Andrews said Clinton fans taunted Silver after a penalty, and Silver reacted verbally while in the penalty box.
"Fans pay their admission to go into the arena (and) they can say whatever the heck they want," Andrews said. "Unfortunately in (the Clinton) arena they're right on top of you, and the situation shouldn't have happened.
"I think it could have been handled better, but it happened. Our player lost control of his emotions, and it's cost us in the end, and we have to deal with it."
Clinton fans were at times heated in Saturday's game as well, which saw them outplay the Jets for most of the game.
The Jets trailed 1-0 after the first period and 4-2 after the second. Darrin Macdonald and Andrew Carey scored in the second frame for Lucan Ilderton.
Macdonald scored again in the second, as did Derek Whitehead and the Jets came close to tying the game in the final minute but were unable to close the deal.
Sunday's game was a reversal, with the Jets in control most of way.
The score was 1-1 after the first, with Kyle Smith scoring the lone Jets goal. Lucan Ilderton moved ahead in the second period thanks to a goal from Scott Mezzinberg, and added three goals in the final frame to ice the victory.
Smith, Mezzinberg and Derek Whitehead each scored in the final frame for Lucan Ilderton.
Andrews said before the series began his squad needs to shut down Clinton's Luke Vick, one of the WOAA's leading scorers during the regular season.
"Out of their seven goals (in the series) he's been in on six of them," Andrews noted. "So apparently we haven't done a very good job of shutting him down."
Another concern for Andrews is staying out of the penalty box – five of Lucan's seven goals have come on special teams, he said.
He added that seven of Lucan Ilderton's goals have come when the teams are playing five-on-five.
"To me that shows that when we're playing them five-on-five, we're totally dominating them," Andrews said. "We can't take penalties – we have to play disciplined, and our guys haven't been doing that."
Game 3 of the series goes Saturday night in Lucan, with Game 4 back in Clinton Sunday.
Andrews said it's nice the Jets have regained home ice advantage in the best-of-five series, but added his team needs to take advantage of it.
"We have to win Saturday," he said. "That's probably going to be one of the biggest games of the series. Whoever wins that game Saturday night is definitely in the driver's seat."
This is the first time the Jets and Radars have faced one another in a series, according to Andrews, who added the series has created a lot of excitement in its first two games.
"So we're hoping that people are going to get out and support it," he said. "It's going to be a good series."
Game 3 is set for an 8:30 p.m. start at the Lucan Community Memorial Centre, with Game 4 at 1 p.m. at the Clinton Arena.