Packers win Frost Fest tilt, clinch first

Posted Feb 2, 2012 By John Carter

EMC Sports - The Arnprior Packers ran their unbeaten streak to 18 with a last-second overtime win over Almonte Thunder last Friday.

The Packers, who have clinched first place in the Eastern Ontario Junior B Hockey League's Valley Division, haven't lost since mid-November.

The newest Packer Derek Lowry scored with two seconds left to give the Packers the win in the Pakenham Frost Fest game at the Stewart Community Centre in Pakenham.

Ironically, Lowry, the Valley Division's leading scorer, was traded by the Thunder to Arnprior three weeks ago. His overtime winner was set up by last year's Valley Division most valuable player Taylor Collins.

It gave Arnprior its ninth straight win (the Packers have 17 wins and a tie in their last 18 games).

The Frost Fest tilt gave the fans their money's worth.

Almonte's Andrew Rowbotham started the scoring on the power-play at 8:34 of the first, but Mitch Parker tied it for Arnprior with just over a minute left in the opening stanza.

Thunder retook the lead with a power-play goal by Aaron MacCosham at 6:39 of the second and Rowbotham made it 3-1 less than a minute later.

However, the Packers tallied twice at 14:45 and 15:57 to draw even. Parker Davies and Parker with his second were the Packer marksmen.

Drake Clancy then gave the Thunder a 4-3 lead by scoring at 16:26.

Early in the third period Davies scored his second goal of the game to knot the score again.

Neither team was able to beat the goalies through the rest of the third period and for all but two seconds of overtime, until Lowry struck against his old team.

Almonte goalie Chad Hetherington stopped 47 shots as Arnprior outshot Almonte 52-43, including 5-3 in overtime. Mike Cheslock, who gave regular Packer netminder Matt Couvrette a day off, stopped 39 of 43 shots.

The Packers went 0-for-4 on the power-play, while Almonte successfully killed off all four of its penalties and scored twice on the power-play.

three FIGHT FOR LAST two PLAYOFF SPOTS

While the Packers have clinched first, their first-round playoff opponent could be any one of three teams.

Almonte, which was almost overtaken on the weekend, took a five-point lead in the battle for third with a 7-4 win over Perth Sunday and a 9-2 blowout of Ottawa Tuesday.

The Renfrew Wolves and Stittsville Royals are tied for fourth with 27 points. Arnprior will play the fourth-place finisher in the first round of the playoffs, which start in two weeks.

The Packers will have a say on who they play. They go to Shawville Friday, then visit Stittsville Sunday, before hosting the Royals Friday, Feb. 10 at 8 p.m.

The Packers round out their season by hosting Renfrew Sunday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Nick Smith Centre.

This year's Metro/Valley Conference all-star festivities are being hosted by the Metcalfe Jets Saturday, Feb. 11 at the Walter Baker Sports Centre in Ottawa.

Valley Division standings

GP W L T OTL Pts

Arnprior 36 27 6 3 0 57

Perth 38 19 14 2 2 42

Almonte 36 14 17 4 2 32

Stittsville 34 12 19 3 0 27

Renfrew 36 12 21 3 0 27

Shawville 36 8 25 0 3 19