By Aaron Bell
In Belleville, Nick Palmieri scored late in double overtime to lift the Bulls to a 3-2 win over the Brampton Battalion in Game 5 of the Rogers Eastern Conference Championship Series on Thursday.
The Bulls staved off elimination but still trail 3-2 with Game 6 on Friday in Brampton. The winner of the series will face the Windsor Spitfires in the Rogers OHL Championship Series beginning next week.
“I think it was a tremendously gutsy effort from both sides,” said Bulls’ coach and GM George Burnett. “It’s wonderful to come out on top and live another day. There’s not a lot of time to enjoy this. We have to get turned around for tomorrow and we’re looking forward to that challenge.”
Palmieri opened the scoring 51 seconds into the game on a feed from Cory Tanaka before Cody Hodgson tied the game in the opening minute of the second period. Matt Tipoff scored his second of the playoffs to put Belleville ahead midway through the second period but Evgeny Grachev tied the game again with his 10th goal of the playoffs with 10 seconds left in the second period.
The teams skated through a scoreless third period and then went 38:44 into overtime before Palmieri ended the game with a powerplay marker - his 12th goal of the playoffs and seventh in the past three games.
P.K. Subban assisted on all three Belleville goals and Mike Murphy was the second star after making 54 saves.
“We know that it’s do-or-die hockey right now,” Murphy said. “We’re desperate. I did make some saves tonight but the guys in front of me were incredible.”
Thomas McCollum made 34 saves for the Battalion, who were scoreless on four powerplay opportunities while the Bulls were two-for-nine with the man-advantage.
“We had a lot of pressure on us and wanted to finish (the series) tonight,” said Battalion forward Thomas Stajan. “Things just didn’t work out.”
