The Spirit struck early for 2 goals and defeated the Tigers tonight in Aurora 3-1 to take a 1 game lead in their best of seven North final. Tonight marked the 7th year in a row that the Aurora Tigers have made it to the North finals.

On a terrible weather night, over 200 fans managed to show up and take in a pretty good game. The Spirit didn't take long to get on the scoreboard as Darren Archibald beat Barton at the 1.23 min mark. About 6 mins later it was James McIntosh putting the Spirit ahead 2-0. The Tigers looked very listless in the 1st period being outshot 12-8.

The Tigers started getting their act together in the 2nd period outshooting the Spirit 12-3 but just could not get anything past O'Neill who was fantastic stopping all 12 Tiger shots in the 2nd.

Aurora continued taking the play to Stouffville in the 3rd but again could not beat O'Neill until late in the period when Mark Thorburn finally got one past from Matt Thomson and Mike McLaughlin. The Tabbies put a lot of pressure on the Spirit in the final few minutes and almost tied it up with less than a minute to play, but again were thwarted by O'Neill. Aurora pulled Barton for the extra man but as it happens so often suffered an empty net goal by Mark Sullivan of the Spirit.

So the 1st game of the North final is History and goes into the books in favour of the Spirit who now take a 1-0 lead into Stouffville Sunday afternoon at 3.30 pm.

Look for this one to possibly go the distance.

GO TIGER GO

Finally got to see a game live on the ACI Webcast. Well done "aciguy" it was great, very clear etc, all the way down here in Sarasota Florida. Finally back on Sunday for the game in Stouffville.

SMC - perhaps we'll fly by each other tomorrow! I am headed to Florida for a week

the call on kokelj which gave aurora to pp to score on was weak at best. watts did a great job of selling it though

made it to the game last night. as usual the driving was not as bad as the tv and radio said it would be. it was worth the drive. stouffville dominated the first and the announced shots were 12-5 spirit. was more like 20-5. aurora looked like they were taking stouffville lightly. thorburn did his best soso imitation just cruising around. o neill was excellent and will be the determining factor in this series. werek trivino and macintosh are the three most skilled players on the ice. bright futures for those kids.look for a long series as jerome will get the tigers on track...spirit in 7

nice to meet mr wahoo at the game last. very good game if you are a stouffville fan. i disagree with the soso reference about thorburn. he played a solid game i thought.

boy is that new announcer in aurora ever good. i hope they pay him well. (smc i couldnt resist) haha

good to meet you too Craig...
yes that new announcer... hmmm, sure has velvet pipes eh Craig ???


P.S. SMC.... we might be crossing paths in air - am headed to Cuba when you are headed back north !

Hopefully the Tigers shed off a bit of rust last night and will be back in the groove tomorrow....

Thorburn being compared to Soso last Night ?? GET REAL...He didn't even have a single penalty never mind a STUPID penalty...

Soso is a player that some fans feel disappears in games and his involvement is gliding around, but not really having an impact on the game. Wingfan was comparing this trait to the performance of Thorburn last night, not every trait of Soso's.

Toronto Maple Leafs= Ford Motor Company

thanks matty...i really like thorburn and know what he is capable of. last night he was on cruise control as were the majority of the tigers. go waxers!!

Doesn't everyone in Aurora get paid well?????