Fort Wayne Federals @ Wooster Oilers

Going into the last weekend of the season if the Oilers swept the Federals in regulation they would move into the 5th seed, meanwhile the Federals only needed 2 points in order to move up into the 4th seed and gain home ice for playoffs.

Game 1

Federals would start the scoring in this game as Maxim Chegrintcev picked up his 49th goal of the season and would then add his 50th just 20 seconds later giving his team a big 2-0 lead early in this game. Oilers James Bradshaw would get his team on the board with his 5th goal of the season and at the end of the 1st the score was 2-1 Federals. In the 2nd period the Federals would extend their lead as Michael DiFranco scored a goal just 4 minutes into the period. Now up 3-1 on the road the Federals were in a good position but they would not score another goal the rest of the game as the Oilers took over finishing the period out with 2 goals to tie the game up at 3. Goals by Braden Smith and Zach Turner pulled Oilers even going into the 3rd period. In the 3rd they would add 2 more goals asBrian Grant gave his team the lead off a short handed goal assisted by Dillon Kessy. Kessey would add a goal to cap off the win as the Oilers come from behind 2 goals to win by 2 goals at 5-3.

Game 2

The Federals would get the scoring started in this game again in the 1st as Ryan Matteson would finish off a power play with his 17th goal of the season. Later in the period Ryan Matteson would score his 2nd goal of the game and put the Federals 2-0 after the 1st period. In the 2nd the Federals opened up the shooting and would outshot the Oilers 16-6 in the period. Ryan Matteson would get another goal to finish off a hat trick and giving him his 20th goal of the season, but most importantly his team was now up 3-0 looking to clinch the 4th seed and home ice advantage. Dillon Kessy would score his 31st goal of the season pulling his Oilers back to within 2 goals going into the 3rd period. In game 1 the Oilers came back from 2 goals down, but this would not be the case in this game In the 3rdperiod neither team would get any goals as both goalies anchored down and late season addition, Christopher Kirk shut the door giving the Federals a 3-1 victory and clinching the 4th seed.

Game 3

Both teams by now knew full well where they would be playing and who they would be playing in next weeks playoffs. This game would be basically a tune up for the playoffs and a final matchup between these 2 this season. This game would start out just like game 2 finished with a defensive battle early on and neither team would get a goal in the 1st period. In the 2nd period the Federals opened it up as Cameron Wirick scored his 23rd goal of the season just 3:05 into the period. Not long after that Robert Adam would make it 2-0 off a Michael Tratar and Johnathan Docherty assisted play. Cameron Wirick would add his 24th goal to put the Federals up 3-0 at the end of the 2nd period. In the 3rd period the Oilers would fire back as they got a goal just 1:11 into the period by Remington Reynolds as he finished off a short handed play pulling the Oilers back to within 2 goals. Rubin Chavarria would then add his 14th goal of the season to pull the Oilers back to within 1. Play Federals Maxim Chegrintcev would once again come up big as he scored his 51st goal of the season to once again give the Federals a 2-goal margin with just 10 minutes left. The Oilers would get an answer as Remington Reynolds would score his 2nd goal of the game and pulled his team back to within 1 with 4 minutes left to go in the game. Despite some quality chances the Oilers were unable to get a game-tying goal, as Christopher Kirk would shut the door again for the victory his 3rd in just 6 games. Fort Wayne ends the season on a good note with a two game winning streak under their belts and sends them into the playoffs in which they will host Tri-City this weekend. 

MnJHL playoffs round one, as always will be a best of three series (first team to win two games).  Fort Wayne plays host to the fifth seeded Tri-City Icehawks, a team in which they played close all season splitting the season series at three games a piece.  Times for this series are listed below.

Game 1: Friday, March 7th 8:00 PM 

Game 2: Saturday, March 8th 8:00 PM

Game 3: (If necessary) Sunday, March 9th 12:00 PM

All games played at the Lutheran Health SportsCenter in Fort Wayne, Indiana