The Battle of North Durham resumes
Roger Varley
During the regular 2024-25 season, the Port Perry LumberJacks crushed the Uxbridge Bruins six games to one in what is known as the Battle of North Durham.
Now, as the Orr Division playoffs for the Cougar Cup begin, the battle has resumed. The Bruins, who edged Port Perry out of fourth place in the regular season standings, have home ice advantage in the best-of-seven quarter-finals, but home ice was not an advantage in the first three games.
The LumberJacks have a 2-1 lead over the Bruins. The teams were scheduled to meet last night (Wednesday) in Scugog and return to the arena tomorrow night at 7:45 p.m. for the fifth game.
So far, the match-up between the arch-rivals has lived up to fans' expectations: the action has been intense and a number of players on both teams have turned in sterling performances. There have been a few skirmishes, including an incident in Port Perry when a player on the LumberJacks' bench punched Bruins forward Tom Nitsopoulos in the face while Nitsopoulos was pinned against the boards, but overall the action has been entertaining.
Last Friday, Port Perry visited the arena and left with a 3-1 victory. The LumberJacks scored a power-play goal late in the first period, but Darin Bain tied the score early in the second, assisted by Luke Kemp. At the midway mark, however, another power-play produced what proved to be the winning goal. The LumberJacks sealed the game less than a minute into the third period.
The Cosmos named Evan Gilbert as Uxbridge's player of the game and called Liam Goreski for the LumberJacks.
In Scugog on Sunday afternoon, it was a different story. Bain scored the only goal of the first period, with assists going to Nitsopoulos and Lucas Marshall. After a scoreless second period, Mateo Guerrieri combined with Josh Pereira and Ayden Burt for the second goal, which appeared to deflect off a Port Perry defender's stick. With 50 seconds left on the clock, Gilbert beat a LumberJack in a race down the ice to pick up a long pass from Tanner Ryan and score an empty netter for a 3-0 win. Uxbridge outshot Port Perry 50-35.
Returning to Uxbridge on Monday night, neither team was able to score in the first period, although each team found themselves with a two-man advantage during the stanza.
The Bruins took a 2-0 lead in the first half of the second period with two power-play markers. Jordan Bonner notched the first, assisted by Nolan Winter and Ryan, and Luke Kemp added the second, assisted by Gilbert and Burt. But Port Perry came back with two of their own, including one on the power play.
As the third period wound down, the LumberJacks took the lead for the first time, leading the Bruins to pull goalie Robbie DiMaria in favour of the extra attacker. With just one second left on the clock, Winter banged in the equalizer to send the game into overtime. Winter was assisted by Luke Kemp and Jack Kemp.
The game came to an end after seven minutes when Port Perry jammed the puck behind DiMaria.
The Cosmos selected Bonner of theBruins and Andrew Naccarato-Soul as players of the game.
An indication of the action the fans were treated to came with the shots on goal. Uxbridge launched 58 shots at LumberJacks goalie Daniel Giusti and DiMaria faced 48 shots.
As of press time, the Clarington Eagles lead the Caledon Golden Hawks 3-0 in their series and the Georgina Ice and the Little Britain Merchants are tied at 1-1. Schomberg Cougars have the bye.