A late rally from the visiting South Grenville Rangers fell one goal short and the Almonte Inferno held on to win 3-2 at the John Levi Community Centre on Sunday night. The win ties the best-of-5 NCJHL quarter-final series at 1-1.
The Inferno reached the quarter-finals after defeating the Westport Rideaus in a best-of-3 playdown.
After finishing 9th in the regular season, the Inferno would be considered heavy underdogs against the 1st place Rangers. They have proved they are up for a fight in this series though, after winning in Westport on Friday night, they took the top seeded team in the league to overtime in Game 1 on Saturday, losing by a final score of 3-2.
The Inferno got hot in the 2nd period of Game 2, scoring the first two goals of the game just 13 seconds apart. Benett Clarke opened the scoring, finishing on an Alex Romain pass from behind the net. Nolan Nesbitt added to the lead, snapping a quick shot off a faceoff past the Rangers goaltender.
Midway through the 2nd period, captain Carson Kazda made it 3-0 Almonte, scoring on a wrist shot from just inside the blueline.
The Inferno defense held the Rangers scoreless until there was less than five minutes left, getting in the shooting lanes and blocking lots of shots. But a late push from the visitors led to two goals from Colin Stacey and Nate Medaglia 28 seconds apart, bringing the score to 3-2 with 4:02 to go.
The Rangers took a costly penalty with 2:43 on the clock, and Almonte hung on to even the series. Diego Hennessy was the winning goaltender.
Game 3 is scheduled for Saturday March 4 at 7:45pm in Cardinal. Game 4 has not been scheduled as of yet, but will likely be played on Sunday March 5 in Almonte.
You can follow the team across all social media platforms, as well as their website – http://infernojuniorhockey.com/.
