CANADA EAST MOVES ON THANKS TO THIRD PERIOD HEROICS

NELSON - It wasn’t one of for the bulletin board, but it was still a win.

Canada East scored four unanswered goals in the third period to defeat Team Germany 4-1 before 850 fans in quarterfinal playoff action at the World Junior A Challenge Thursday night at the NDCC Arena.

Wes Consorti (Brantford, ON/ Hamilton, OPJHL), Jeremy Franklin (Bath, ON/ Wellington, OPJHL) with the winner, Louke Oakley (Whitby, ON/ Bowmanville, OPJHL), into an empty net and Mike McLaughlin (Seaforth, ON/ Aurora, OPJHL) in the final seconds of the game scored for Canada, now off to Trail Saturday night to meet Russia in one of two semi finals.

"It’s just a great comeback by the guys," said Canada East player of the game, Oakley, taking the positive road on a night when the Germans almost stole one.

"We all gelled in the dressing room and got things going. Once we scored things opened up for us."

The story for 44 minutes and 55 seconds was German goalie Andreas Tanzer.

The 18-year-old netminder from the Augsburger Panthers allowed Team Germany to cling to a 1-0 lead.

"I don’t think we were getting frustrated, just a little more anxious to keep shooting the puck and good things happened in the third period," Oakley explained.

Those good things came in the form of a great play from Oakley. The winger from Bowmanville scampered into the German zone, deked around the defence and slid a pass across the front of the net to a streaking Consorti, who snapped a high shot past Tanzer.

Canada East kept up the pressure and was rewarded with a power play marker less than three minutes later. Brandon Burlon did most of the work, drilling a screen shot Franklin deflected with the shaft of his stick.

"There was really nobody hanging their heads," said Franklin. "We knew there was no tomorrow. We knew we had a job we had to do and went out and did it."

Oakley, finishing the game with three points, scored from center into the empty net before McLaughlin completed the scoring on a nice passing play.

"We had nothing to lose and were coming off a game (Tuesday against Canada West) where we played poorly so we had a lot of jump left in our game," said Team Germany associate coach, Jeff Tomlinson when asked about his teams?strong play.

"We said right from the start we wanted to outwork (Canada East). And I think we did that I¹d say for at least half the game."