Quitting was never an option for the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks.
It was a full house as fans lined up in support of their Winterhawks in a do-or-die situation.
The Winterhawks fought off elimination with a 6-1 victory over the Ripley Wolves in Game 4 of their Ontario Elite Hockey League semi-final series on Saturday night at The Plex.
On a night the clocks went ahead, Curtis Johnston turned it back, the veteran winger scoring a hat-trick before the midway point of the game.
Johnston opened the scoring 2:35 into the game on the power play from Medric Mercier and Josh Urbshott, then followed up with a perfect shot at 4:51 from James McHaig and Miles MacLean to make it a 2-0 Winterhawks lead right off the bat.
Ripley got one back at 12:45, and the Winterhawks took a 2-1 lead to the dressing room after one period.
Although the final score was lopsided, the play was anything but, as Ripley was continually turned away by the outstanding play of Winterhawks goalie Clayton Fritsch.
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Johnston completed the hat-trick on the power play at 9:29 of the second when he tipped a Mercier point shot through Ripley goalie Jason Hamilton, with the puck just trickling over the goal line.
From there, Fritsch took over, turning aside numerous Ripley chances, making several highlight reel saves to keep the score at 3-1 through 40 minutes.
The Winterhawks put the game away with three goals in two minutes in the third period.
Justin Marlowe buried a power play goal at 6:58 from Andy Mitchell and MacLean, followed quickly by Logan Freiburger 53-seconds later from Matt Smallman and Chad Jones.
MacLean picked up a penalty shot at 9:04, beating Hamilton on the glove side to make it a 6-1 score, capping off a four-point night for the Winterhawks captain.
Johnston picked up Wismer House Player of the Game honours for his hat-trick, but an honourable mention went to Fritsch, who made 45 saves for the win in goal.
The win forces Game 5 next Friday night, March 14th, in Ripley at 8:30 p.m.
Thanks to the Winterhawks organization, the Special Olympics athletes were also on hand to sell programs as a fundraiser.
