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Friday, March 14, 2025

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Last weekend the Rivers Jets battled to a 2-0 lead in the Tiger Hills Hockey League Eastern Division Finals.

Captain Riley Shamray delivered the game winner in both contests against the Killarney Shamrocks. In the first game of the best-of-five series, the defenceman’s overtime goal propelled the Jets to a 4-3 victory. Rivers took the second tilt, 3-2.

“‘Shams’ is a work horse for us,” the Jets’ Mike McFadden said. “He’ll have a massive shift on a penalty kill and then be right back out there for a big shift of the powerplay. For most guys, having back to back game winning goals in the playoffs would be a career highlight. But that’s just another weekend for Shams.”

The third contest was on March 12 in Killarney after the Banner deadline. If needed, game four would be March 14 in Rivers. A fifth game would be played in Killarney on March 15. The Shamrocks have home ice advantage in the series as they topped the division with a 14-1-1-0 record while the Jets were second at 13-3-0-0.

Game One

Jets 4, Shamrocks 3 OT

The special teams of the Rivers squad made a difference in both of the first two games of the series. In the opening contest of the series on March 7, Shamray’s OT marker came with the man advantage.

“We were working it around on the powerplay and it came around to me and I was fortunate enough to beat the goalie with the one timer,” Shamray said.

The Jets entered the third period trailing

3-1. At the 6:04 mark, Dylan Thiessen scored with the man advantage. About nine minutes later, Kayden Sutherland lit the lamp to knot the game at 3-3.

In the first period, Brock Paddock scored the game’s first goal. The Shamrocks answered with two straight goals. Ty Enns scored on the powerplay and Rylan Gudnason got one at even strength. That made the score 2-1 after one. Jesse Bernard added one for Killarney in the second period.

Riley Lamb made 43 saves for Rivers. Killarney goalie Brian Archibald stopped 28 shots.

Game Two

Jets 3, Shamrocks 2

On March 8, the Jets outscored the Shamrocks 3-1 over the first two periods. Thiessen got things started in the first period as he scored the game’s opening goal on a powerplay. Reid Gow answered for Killarney. With just over two minutes remaining in the frame, McFadden scored to put the Jets up 2-1. Shamray put the game winner into the back of the net on a second period powerplay.

“We wanted to start this game right where we finished the last game,” McFadden said. “We knew both teams would be tired for the second half of back to back nights, but we knew our youth would be an advantage to us so getting the first goal was really important.”

Morgan Magwood scored for Killarney in the third, but the team was unable to tie things up. Lamb turned away 38 shots. Archibald made 34 saves.

Shamray delivers as Jets take 2-0 lead

By Robin Wark