LUCAN – The Lucan Ilderton Jets and Petrolia Squires remain tied in their WOAA Senior Men's Hockey League divisional playoff series after trading road wins on the weekend.
The Jets won 2-1 Friday night in Petrolia but suffered at 6-4 loss in Lucan Saturday night, leaving the best-of-seven series tied at two games apiece.
Friday's game saw Kyle Smith score both Lucan Ilderton goals, including a short-handed effort in the first period. Jets netminder KJ Robinson had 31 saves in a near-shutout.
"We played a perfect road game," said Jets general manager Rob Andrews. "The guys went in there, kept the score close, played the breaks, we got the breaks, and came out with a win."
Saturday's game saw the Jets trail 3-1 after the first period, with Ryan Fletcher scoring the lone Lucan Ilderton goal.
Darrin Macdonald and Rob Silver added Jets goals in the second period but Petrolia also scored twice and led 5-3 at the break.
Both teams scored once in the final period, with Joey Pikul finding the net for Lucan Ilderton.
Andrews said the game was frustrating and questioned a decision made by the game's referee.
Andrews pointed to an incident where he said Robinson was "taken out" by a Petrolia player and Jets player Jeff Silver was tagged with a suspension for instigating a fight after the incident.
"For me, what led to that penalty was the (Petrolia player) taking out our goalie," Andrews said. "(Silver)  did what any other player on any team would do – he came to the rescue of his goalie, and now we're going to lose him."
Andrews admitted Silver is a "tough, physical kid," and stepping up to defend his goalie wasn't uncharacteristic of Silver.
"Jeff did what any other guys on our team would have done at the time – he came in and he stuck up for the goalie," Andrews said.
"I definitely believe the call that was made on it was wrong, but ... that's a judgement call made by the referee, and we have to go by that."
Silver was suspended in a playoff series against the Clinton Radars earlier this season after a verbal altercation with Clinton fans.
The Jets-Squires series resumes this coming Friday in Petrolia, with Game 6 set for Saturday night in Lucan.
Andrews said the team is confident going into Petrolia's rink, because they've won there already in the series.
"We have to win another game in their arena (to win the series), so probably no better time than Friday night to win that game," Andrews said. "The only other opportunity we're going to have is a Game 7.
"But in saying that, we know that anything can happen in a Game 7 if it gets there."
Friday's game is set for an 8 p.m. start, wi