LUCAN – It took seven games, but the Lucan Ilderton Jets finished the Tillsonburg Thunder in their second-round WOAA Senior Men’s Hockey League series on the weekend.

The Jets won Game 7 in overtime by a score of 4-3  Sunday night, having dropped the previous two games: a 6-5 decision Feb. 24 and an 8-2 drubbing Saturday night.
Lucan Ilderton will face either Petrolia or Monkton in the next round, depending on the outcome of a game scheduled for Tuesday night, after this week’s Times-Advocate went to press.

The Jets came close to clinching the series Feb. 24, building a 4-2 lead over the course of two periods but surrendering four goals in the final frame and suffering the loss.

Lucan Ilderton players Derek Whitehead and Darrin McDonald scored in the first period, while Drew Belt and Jason Wilson added to the lead in the second.

Tillsonburg scored late in the second period, then added four goals in the third that went unanswered until the game’s final minute, when Pikul found the net.

Saturday’s game was a continuation of that third-period theme, and a Tillsonburg win was never really in doubt.

The Thunder led 3-0 after the first period, 5-1 after the second, and added three more goals in the final frame.

Whitehead and Ryan Fletcher were the only Jets players to score, finding the net in the second and third periods, respectively.

In Sunday’s game neither team scored until the second period, which ended 3-2 in Tillsonburg’s favour.

Kyle Smith and Rob Silver each scored for Lucan Ilderton in the second frame, and Silver tied the game with 10:20 left in the third.

Pikul scored an unassisted goal roughly nine minutes into overtime to take the victory.

“After the game Saturday night the morale for the guys was ... they were down and out,” said Jets general manager Rob Andrews.

“But we had a little closed-door meeting and the coaches explained that hey, we were the fourth-place team (during the regular season), and they were the first place team.

They’re supposed to be beating us. Anything can happen in a Game 7, and we knew that if we went in there and kept the first period close, anything can happen.”

Andrews said the team drew motivation from a sign at the Tillsonburg arena advertising the next Thunder game: “(This coming) Saturday night against either Petrolia or Monkton.

“There were a few little things that happened during the series that they did that motivated our guys – a few little mistakes, I think, that their management made,” Andrews said.

We were able to use that as a positive, and it worked out for us.”

The Jets may be without one of their best players early in the next round: Ryan Fletcher suffered a shoulder injury and was set to be examined Monday.

Hopefully it’s just muscle bruising, but we don’t really know until he gets it looked at,” Andrews said.

The Jets have never advanced this far on the ‘AA’ side of the WOAA playoffs, though they won last year’s ‘A’ (consolation) championship.

Andrews said the next series will be tough regardless of who his team plays.

“We seem to match up a little better against Monkton than Petrolia,” he added, “so I would probably prefer Monkton. But they’re both big, physical teams. It’ll be interesting. It will be a good series.”

The Jets’ first game of the next round will likely be a road game Friday night, with Game 2 likely taking place Saturday night in Lucan.

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