Kings even series with Alliston, shift to Penetang

The Alliston Hornets were leading 2-0 with one second left in the first period of last night's Game 2 of the GMOHL finals against Penetang when Matt Paul blasted the puck past goalie Breton MacKinnon to put his team on the board.

The game clock still showed .06 seconds left so they had to drop the puck at centre to run out time. Until then, Alliston had controlled much of the play opening the scoring on Jeff Henderson's powerplay goal at 2:42, followed by Randy Cox's marker at 7:06.

Paul's dying period goal, would be followed by his second on the powerplay at 6:27 of the second, and then his natural hat trick would be complete about seven minutes later, again on the powerplay at 13:31 to give Penetang its first lead of this series. They'd reel off five consecutive goals including a third on the powerplay 1:48 seconds into the third period.

Alliston's Pat McCarron closed the gap at 5-3 with 13 minutes still left to play, but Kings goaltender Jacob McKendry would hold on to make 46 saves out of 49 faced. Penetang's Chris Watson scored an empty net goal with two seconds left in the game to complete the scoring and tie the series at a game each.

The series now shifts for Games 3 and 4 in Penetang Wednesday and Friday night, before returning to Alliston for Game 5 Sunday.

These two teams have met four consecutive times in GMOHL playoffs, the last three in the finals. The shortest series was Alliston's five game win in 2007-2008, which they went on to win their first Ontario championship. In 2006-07 Penetang ousted Alliston in the semifinals in six games enroute to their second provincial title. And last season, Alliston needed six games to win the league final.

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