With the Pacers winning their home game in the home-and-home series with the Blue Devils this week, they kept their playoff hopes alive. By the time this weekend is over, the picture may be a bit clearer -- or not. Currently the Pacers are bunched amongst a group of teams that range from 7th place Wallaceburg (16 pts, 3 games remaining) down to 12th place Owen Sound (6 pts, 6 games remaining). To stay in the hunt and give themselves the best chance possible, the Pacers need to win their 3 remaining games and hope for some help from other clubs higher in the standings.

Last night's game showed that the club from Sarnia isn't quite ready to give up on their playoff dreams. After dropping a heartbreaking loss in London on Wednesday, they rebounded with a great effort in spite of once again playing with a short bench. 

The Blue Devils opened the scoring early but Kyle Ferguson took a pass in his own end from TJ Mara and went coast to coast to notch the first goal for the Pacers - and his first of three points this period. Helping his own cause in the win and picking up two assists was Justin "House" Matthews who made feeds on goals by  Ben Tamming and Ryan Charteris.  The goal by Charteris was his first of the season to go along with his 9 assists. Sarnia's Brandon Burr gave his team a two goal lead with just under 3 minutes to go but London replied with one of their own just 8 seconds later.  The Pacers took a 4-3 lead into the dressing room after 20 minutes of play.

In the second stanza, Sarnia's shooters found their touch reeling off six goals, five of them in a row. It began with a Dan Charlton power play goal as London took a too many men penalty at the end of the first period.  London responded by scoring  two goals of their own and the game was notched at five each before the period had reached the five minute mark. And then began the scoring floodgates opened. Brandan Burr started it off at the 8:42 mark to give the home town crowd back into the game. Just 29 seconds later Kevin Conroy bulged the twine and the Pacers were off and running.  The Blue Devils got into a bit of penalty trouble with just under 5 minutes to go as McKegney was called for tripping and he was joined in the sin bin by teammate Feliciano who got two minutes for slashing.  Sarnia scored twice getting markers from Dan Charlton and Kevin Conroy. Rounding off the scoring for Sarnia was Dan Gawne and the Pacers would have a 5 goal lead to begin the 3rd period. 

Sarnia again begin with a power play opportunity as a result of some scrum behind London's net after the buzzer had blown to end the 2nd period. Adding another goal to his total (and a hat trick for the night) was Kevin Conroy.  London would get two goals of their own in the period but didn't seem to have enough to mount a comeback in the face of some outstanding play by "House" and the rest of the Pacers.

Special shout out to Aaron Schieman who wasn't able to dress and play in the game but performed a different type of duty for the club.  He provided colour commentary for Sarnia's local TV station on Cogeco. 

The Pacers are on the road for their next two games.  On Wednesday the 15th they are a short drive down river to Wallaceburg with a 7:30 pull. On Saturday the 18th they travel to Niagara and then close out their regular season on Sunday the 19th with a 4pm game against Welland.  Action photos for this game can be found in our photo gallery.