Fort Macleod Mustangs goalie Aaron DeKok stops Nanton Palominos Brandon Aab with Myles Stoesz and Easton Fitzpatrick coming in to clear the rebound.
The Fort Macleod Mustangs and Nanton Palominos will go the distance to decide who plays for the Ranchland Hockey League championship.
The Mustangs and Palominos split a pair of weekend games in Fort Macleod to even the best-of-five series at two games piece.
The deciding game is at 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 6 at the Tom Hornecker Recreation Centre in Nanton.
The Cremona Coyotes, who beat the Lethbridge Lightning 3-1 in the other semifinal final series, are waiting for the winner.
Palominos 5 Mustangs 2
Tempers boiled over Friday night at the Fort Macleod and District Sports Centre in a game that featured 125 penalty minutes and six players ejected.
Nanton held on for a 5-2 win Friday, to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
The Palominos opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal 3 1/2 minutes into the game, but the Mustangs responded 15 seconds later with a goal by Jason Creighton, assisted by Jadon Porterfield.
Brandon Aab restored Nanton’s lead mid way through the first period.
Play was held up in the second period due to a brawl that saw referees assess six fighting majors, a major and a match penalty for spearing, a four-minute penalty for head contact and two 10-minute misconducts.
Fort Macleod’s Jadon Porterfield, Jason Creighton and Myles Stoesz, and Nanton’s Zack Wildman, Robbie McLean and Taylor McNeil were ejected for fighting.
Porterfield picked up three game misconducts and two game ejections, and McLean received two game ejections.
When play resumed, Aab scored his second on a powerplay to make it 3-1, and Brett Legrandeur notched another with Nanton still on the powerplay.
Brandon Creighton scored a shorthanded goal for Fort Macleod early in the third, but Legrandeur closed out Nanton’s 5-2 win with his second goal on a powerplay less than a minute later.
Mustangs goalie Aaron DeKok made 21 saves while Matthew McDonald blocked 23 shots in goal for Nanton.
Mustangs 6 Palominos 2
Rookie Riley Potts scored a hat trick Saturday night and the Mustangs evened the series with a 6-2 win on home ice.
The teams were tied 1-1 after 20 minutes and Fort Macleod pulled ahead 3-2 in the second, before closing out the win with three unanswered goals in the third.
Fort Macleod also got goals from Tanner Stovin, Tylin Oka and Jordy Welsh.
Brandon Creighton, Dalton Eagle Bear and Dane Creighton each had two assists and Justin Donahue had one.
Aab and Legrandeur scored for Nanton.
DeKok stopped 28 of 30 shots in goal for Fort Macleod, while the Mustangs blasted 37 shots at Nanton goalies McDonald and Mason Kelly.
Just six minor penalties were assessed.
