Ontario Hockey Association

Thorold 2 at Tecumseh 7

The Tecumseh Chiefs advanced to the GOJHL Sutherland Cup championship series on Sunday with a convincing 7-2 win over the Thorold Blackhawks in the final round-robin game in front of 657 spectators at Tecumseh Arena.

With the win, the Chiefs clinched top spot in the round-robin standings with a 3-1 record. They will have home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven championship series where they will face the Elmira Sugar Kings, who finished second with a 2-2 record. The 1-3 Blackhawks are eliminated from the Sutherland Cup competition.

Chiefs forward Ryan Viselli (right), a WOHL first-team all-star who led the team in scoring with 80 points in the regular season, gave his team a quick 1-0 lead just 32 seconds into the game. Josh Nicol put the Chiefs up 2-0 just 2:35 later before Kevin Simson replied for Thorold at 7:47 to make it 2-1. The Chiefs restored their two-goal lead late in the opening frame on a goal by Travis Ouellette.

The Chiefs put the game away and put a lock on their berth in the final with two goals 1:12 apart midway through the second for an insurmountable 5-1 lead.

Viselli ended up with a goal and three assists on the night to pace the Chiefs. Viselli led all scorers in the round-robin series with eight points. Ouellette added a pair of assists to go along with his goal for a three-point night, while Justin Hogan scored the game's last two goals for the Chiefs, who outshot the Blackhawks 38-33. Ryan Bellows, playing in his final junior 'B' game, scored the other Thorold goal.

The Chiefs were opportunistic on the power play, going 3 for 8 in the game. The Blackhawks were 1 for 4 with the man advantage. Tecumseh led the three round-robin teams with a power play success rate of 30.3% (10/33), and their 87.5% penalty-killing efficiency was also best among the three teams.

Chiefs netminder Jonathan Hunter made 31 saves for his third win of the round-robin. Rick Scarsella started in net for the Blackhawks and allowed the first five Tecumseh goals on 26 shots before being replaced by Marcus Menard, who allowed the other two Chiefs goals on 12 shots faced. Scarsella returned to the Thorold net for the final four minutes of the third period.

The result which ultimately separated the three teams in the round-robin standings was in the opening game, which saw the Chiefs claim a 4-3 overtime win over the Blackhawks in Thorold for the only win by an away team. The home team won each of the five remaining games.

Dates and times for the best-of-seven GOJHL championship series will be announced early this week. The Chiefs are seeking their first-ever Sutherland Cup, while the Sugar Kings are looking for their third OHA title, having previously won in 1997 and 2001.