BRANTFORD, ON- The Brantford 99ers returned to the Gretzky Centre for a Thursday night tilt featuring the visiting Mississauga Chargers. Zach Burleigh started in goal for the 99ers, and Sebastian Moncada for the Chargers. Cameron Hankai and Joe Weber would make their 99ers debuts.
6 minutes into the game, 99ers defenseman Cole Smith was called for holding and went to sit for 2 minutes. On the Chargers power play, a misplayed puck ended up on the stick of Kyle Burton who raced down on a short-handed breakaway and made no mistake snapping the puck past the blocker of Moncada for his 5th goal of the season, giving the home team a 1-0 advantage. Later in the period, Spencer Borg would score his 1st goal of the season after a feed from Kojokaro, sliding the puck through the five-hole of Moncada, doubling Brantford’s lead which would stand after 20 minutes of play.
Early into the 2nd, Artem Narbekov and Nicholas Townsend were sent to their respective penalty boxes for off setting cross-checking infractions sending the game to 4-on-4 for 2 minutes. Neither team could capitalize with the extra space on the ice and the game returned to 5-on-5. Hankai was called for a holding penalty shortly after, but the Chargers couldn’t get the power play gelling. 16 minutes into the period, after a hard working offensive zone shift, Evin Kojokaro received the puck net front and snapped it past a screened Moncada for his 5th of the season. A short 2 minutes later, Kyle Burton found Tyler Renneboog wide open on the right side who buried a beautiful one timer for his 2nd goal of the season. The 99ers headed into the final period with a comfortable 4-0 lead, leading 25-14 in shots.
The story of the 3rd period would be the sensational play of Zach Burleigh to maintain his shutout. At the 11:39 mark, Jack Pancoe received a 4 minute double minor for kneeing. On this extensive Chargers power play, Burleigh stretched out his right pad to deny Mississauga from getting on the scoreboard, and the 99ers successfully killed all penalties of the contest. Joe Weber added 1 more goal with 14 seconds left in the contest for his 1st goal as a 99er in his 1st game. Brantford secured the 5-0 victory and Zach Burleigh secured his 1st career OJHL Shutout. Kyle Burton finished the game with 3 points, and Kojokaro, Borg, Pancoe and Renneboog all had multi-point nights.
The 99ers are back in action tonight, travelling to Niagara Falls to take on the Canucks. The puck drops at 7pm at the Gale Centre.
Can’t make it to the game? Catch all the action live on http://flohockey.tv.
