GLANBROOK (Mar. 3) --  The Grimsby Peach Kings relied on their special teams to carry them to a 3-0 victory over the Glanbrook Rangers in the opening game of the South Bloomfield Division finals.   The Peach Kings scored twice on the power play, while thwarting all eight of Glanbrook's extra-man opportunities. 

It was the first game of the eagerly anticipated playoff series between the perennial rivals, but there were a number of other firsts that were less welcome for the Rangers.  It was their first loss of the post-season after eight straight victories, and it was the first time they had been held scoreless since the final game of last season's Schmalz Cup against the Lakefield Chiefs. 

The match-up brought together two teams between whom the difference was minuscule.  They both dominated their division, their duel for first place went down to the final game of the season, and their head-to-head clashes were virtually a draw.  No surprise then that this outing followed a similar pattern.  

The goaltenders set the tone through a scoreless first period, with Glanbrook's Warren Lament and Grimsby's Riley Maskell taking turns making key saves.  The breakthrough came when Glanbrook was assessed a double minor late in the period, which carried over into the second frame. 

The Rangers came within a whisker of escaping unscathed, but at the 1:12 mark of period two,  Grimsby's Christian Stevens redirected a point shot from Michael Grace to break the logjam.  Glanbrook regrouped and applied some pressure -- although they struggled at times to find an effective rhythm -- and it paid off as Keaton Kewley was hauled down on a breakaway, resulting in a penalty shot.  But Maskell thwarted the attempt by Noah Matteson to preserve the 1-0 edge.

That margin held until 9:49 of the third frame when a David McKinnon deflection fluttered past Lament, and the Peach Kings sealed the upset just a couple of minutes later when Jacob Balca slipped a shot from a bad angle into the Glanbrook cage.   Maskell made 33 saves to earn the shutout, while Lament turned aside 26 Grimsby shots.  

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