Kelvin clips Oak Park, goes on to final

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Oak Park's Cory Yeroschak (9) bears down on Clippers' Darrell Kilburn (5) in the neutral zone during the second period of their AAAA semifinal Saturday at Eric Coy Arena. (MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

SCORING six unanswered goals, including four in less than five minutes to open the third period, the Kelvin Clippers could not be stopped Saturday night.

The Clippers defeated the Oak Park Raiders 6-2 in the semifinal game of the 2012 Milk Provincial AAAA Boys' High School Hockey Provincial Championship at Eric Coy Arena

Kelvin, which got into the provincials on a wild-card berth, will now meet the St. Paul's Crusaders in the championship final Monday at 8 p.m. at Eric Coy.

St. Paul's had earned a bye to the final with a 4-0 win over Kelvin in the last round-robin game of the tournament at noon Saturday. The players of the game were goaltender Adam Vanderlinden of St. Paul's and Dominic Blouin of Kelvin.

"Getting to the final, it means a chance at redemption. We get to meet St. Paul's again," said Clippers forward Mike Lorange. St. Paul's beat Kelvin 3-2 in the deciding game of the city championship last Monday. "They beat us in the (city) finals and it hurt a lot, but we've got to keep our heads up and get the win."

Oak Park appeared to have control leading 2-0 midway through the second period.

But the Clippers came back fired up for the final frame after an emotional lift late in the second.

Lorange, an explosive player who was a third-round draft pick by Prince Albert in the 2010 Western Hockey League bantam draft, scored Kelvin's first goal with 1:11 left in the second.

"We've had some slow starts lately, but it seems like as soon as we get one, we start firing on all cylinders and it's really great," said Lorange, who carried it up ice, went through the Raiders' defenceman and snapped it past Raiders goalie Garrett Shaw.

"The coaches, we were even saying on the bench, we just didn't have anything (before Lorange's goal), we were that close to packing up," said Clippers coach Bruce Sirrell, whose team has played 10 games in 11 days. "Mike had a pretty good individual effort that sparked us."

In the third period, the Clippers got goals from Dylan Allary and Chad Pearch just 17 seconds apart to take a 3-2 lead in the first three minutes. A goal from Isaac Bellan that banked off a Raiders defenceman and off the post into the net, followed by a slapshot goal by Pearch, put Kelvin up 5-2 with 13 minutes left to play. Beau Zelenwich's power-play marker at 15:03 sealed the deal.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 11, 2012 B6