The Toronto Golden Jets GOLD team entry in the Canadian Senior Men’s National League (MLWP) finished off the regular season by winning all four of its games last weekend at home at the University of Toronto.Before the weekend began, the Jets’ first opponent, Ottawa Titans Black was sitting comfortably in first place in the Western Division of the Eastern Conference. The two teams had met in late January in Montreal with the Titans winning 5-3.
The game proved to be a defence-first affair for both teams that led to only a single first quarter goal by the visitors. The Jets rebounded with three qoals of their own in the second quarter as they shut out the Titans to lead 3-1 at the half. Neither team could score in the third quarter. Ottawa managed a goal in the final frame but that was it for both teams and the Jets escaped with a narrow 3-2 win.
Sukhmun Hare with a pair and Euan Schoffield handled the Jets scoring while goalie Emirhan Ozdemir was outstanding.
The next day, the Jets were up against the second Ottawa team (Titans Blue) and the team wasted no team asserting its dominance by running up identical 4-0 quarters to end the first half ahead 8-0. The second half was much of the same and the Jets left the pool 15-1 winners.
Colin Colterjohn and Hare led the way with hat tricks while Brett Luehmann, Paul Spooner and Scoffield netted a pair each. Single tallies went to Chris Vang, Stefan Mitic and Tuna Tali. Back-up goaltender Andrew Chorniy was nearly flawless.
Later in the day, the Jets would match up against the Eastern Division leaders, DDO Black (Montreal). The teams traded goals twice in the first quarter to end it deadlocked 2-2. The Jets again scored twice but held DDO to one and led 4-3 at the half. As against Ottawa Black the night before, neither team could score in the third quarter. However, the Jets roared out to a 5-1 fourth quarter to win 9-4.
Scoffield notched a hat trick, Rudy Despaigne and Luehmann scored twice each while Colterjohn and Vang added singles. Ozdemir again was outstanding in goal.
The final match for the Jets Gold team was the next day versus DDO Gold (Montreal). The Jets eased out to a 3-0 first quarter lead and then fired in six more in the second period to lead 9-1 at the half. The Jets kept going and finished up with a convincing 19-2 victory. Luehmann and Tali led all scorers with four goals apiece with Vang netting a hat trick. Colterjohn, Despaigne and Scoffield each scored twice while Matt Hart and Hare added singles. Chorniy again was nearly flawless in the goal.
The Jets now move on to the National Championship Finals in Montreal March 23-25 and will open their defence of the title with a quarter-final match up against Team Saskatchewan.