Bruins losing battle of North Durham
Roger Varley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Despite dominating the Port Perry LumberJacks for most of the first two periods, the Uxbridge Bruins were defeated 7-5 at the arena on Friday when the visitors scored four unanswered goals in the final period. The win gave Port Perry a 3-0 lead in the battle of North Durham, with four games between the two teams remaining in the regular season.
The Bruins laid down a constant onslaught against the LumberJacks in the first period, but Port Perry took advantage of defensive lapses to come out of the period tied 3-3. Ryan Shier opened the scoring with a power-play goal near the midway mark, assisted by Evan Gilbert and Tyler Laita. The LumberJacks responded a couple of minutes later. Nolan Winter restored the lead just 15 seconds after the Port Perry goal when he took a long lead pass and skated in on goal alone. Assists went to Laita and Tristan Vedovat-Leite. Once again, Port Perry responded. Tanner Ryan made it 3-2, assisted by Colin Glecoff and Jack Kemp, but another lapse on the part of the defence led to Port Perry's third goal.
Uxbridge's domination continued in the second period, with two goals coming just a minute apart at the midway point. Jack Kemp scored the go-ahead goal, assisted by Laita and Glecoff, and Luke Kemp put the home team two goals up, assisted by Jaxon Koehler and Lucas Marshall.
The third period was a different story. The LumberJacks took over and scored four goals, including a power-play marker and an empty-netter, for a 7-5 final.
The Cosmos selected Glecoff as player of the game for Uxbridge and Mac Connelly for Port Perry. Connelly had a goal and two assists for the LumberJacks.
The loss left Uxbridge mired in sixth place in the PJHL's seven-team Orr Division with three wins and seven losses, but they have played fewer games than any of the other teams so far.
The Bruins will make up some of those games this weekend. They return to action at the arena tomorrow (Friday) at 7:45 p.m., when they host the Schomberg Cougars. On Sunday, they travel to Caledon to meet the Golden Hawks and next Thursday they visit Clarington to face the league-leading Eagles