The Rockets celebrate at the final buzzer, as the defeated the Manotick Mariners 3 games to none to win the Eastern Ontario Super Hockey League (EOSHL) Eastern Conference Championship. Tinkess Photo

CHESTERVILLE – The North Dundas Senior Rockets completed a sweep of the Manotick Mariners in their best of five Eastern Conference Championship series, defeating the Mariners 6-4 on Saturday afternoon in Chesterville.

The Mariners got on the board first at 3:29 of the opening period when Timothy Cousineau scored on the powerplay with Branden Makara and Storm Adams picking up the assists. The lead was short lived, however, when Cody Caron scored just 30 seconds later on a pretty passing play from Fabian Walsh and Michael Mcnamee.

Manotick took the lead once again at 12:09 when Jeff Hayes scored with assists going to Ryan Lough and Jonathan Cyr.

The sea-saw battle continued with North Dundas once again tying things up at 11:16 on Caron’s second goal of the game, again with assists going to Walsh and Mcnamee.

The Rockets then picked up the pace, scoring twice more before the end of the first period.  Eric Locke scored at 15:09  from Andrew Radjenovic and Michael Gibson, and Mcnamee made it 4-2 at 16:51 with assists going to Caron and Adam Beveridge.

The Rockets started the second period the way they finished the first, making it 5-2 when Gibson scored from Doug Harvey and Locke at 6:05.

The Mariners tried to get back in the game, when Makara scored on the powerplay at 13:24 from Lough and Cyr, but the Rockets came back at 17:13 with a goal from Marco Azzano, assisted by Tanner Williams and Walsh.

For the final 20 minutes the Rockets played a strong defensive game, holding Manotick to just ten shots and one goal, a powerplay marker from Ryan Lough, with the lone assist going to Liam Dennison. Manotick had pulled the goaltender in favour of an extra attacker, and managed to pull within two goals, but with just 49 seconds remaining, that would be all they could muster, and the final score ended up as 6-4 for the Rockets.

Only 20 minutes in penalties were called with North Dundas receiving 14 of them.

Matt Jenkins returned to the net and captured the win for North Dundas, stopping 25 of 29 shots, while Berk Berkeliev took the loss for Manotick, allowing 6 goals on 59 shots.

Cody Caron captured the first star on the strength of 2 goals and an assist while Fabian Walsh earned second star honours with three assists. Ryan Lough, with one goal and two assists received the third star for Manotick.

The Rockets now await the winner of the western Championship series between Smiths Falls and Gananoque, which is scheduled to open in Gananoque on March 16, with game two and three in Smiths Falls on March 18 and 22, while game four, if necessary, will be in Gananoque on Sun., March 23.