TORONTO, ON (June 6, 2024) — The Toronto Beaches doubled down on Thursday night, grabbing both wins from the doubleheader in a gritty, physical matchup against the Brampton Excelsiors by a 12-7 score at Ted Reeve Arena.
Both Willem Firth and Matt Collison saw six-point nights for a combined four goals and eight assists, while Peyton Booth etched his first hat-trick of the season, scoring one in each period.
Goaltender Thomas Kiazyk had himself a night of his own, scoring his first OJLL goal late in the third to go along with an impressive 39-save performance.
A scrappy opening eight minutes saw no team break the ice with both defences showcasing their fortitude. The Beaches broke the deadlock as Booth buried an outside look at the 12-minute mark. Liam Aston followed suit, scoring off a feed from AJ Nikolic, giving the Beach a two-goal lead. But within a minute, Nolan Byrne got his team on the board, making it 2-1 Beaches.
Firth scratched his first of the game after a forced turnover at the half caused a fast break down the floor, and with a nice move, he put the ball in the back of the net. Aston closed out the Beaches’ 25-shot first-period performance, nabbing his second with silky mitts in tight.
The Beaches took a 4-1 lead over the Excelsiors into the first intermission.
Brampton came out of the gates swinging to open the second frame, scoring a pair in the opening five minutes. The first would come off Neal Admanson’s stick for an unassisted goal, with Darcy Thompson grabbing the second around a minute later. Firth got one back for Toronto at the 16:24 mark of the period, sneaking one past Goaltender Connor O’Toole. Byrne answers 30 seconds later.
Toronto let their special teams go to work, with their next two goals coming from the power play. Hunter Lubiniecki and Booth, both lay a hold of a power-play goal. The Excelsiors grabbed a special-teams goal for themselves while shorthanded. However, special teams weren’t done yet, with Collison getting his hands dirty, sneaking one past O’Toole on the power-play.
Three goals would separate the teams as they headed to the locker for the second intermission, in favour of the Beaches, 8-5.
Excelsiors got onto the score sheet first in third, as Bowie Horsman broke the ice. Hamish McPherson would throw the hammer down on the back post for his first of the night.
A scoreless 13-and-a-half minutes would elapse before another tally hit the board. Firth changed that off a perfect passing play between Booth and Collision. Thompson notched his second promptly for Brampton after Firth’s goal. But Booth secured his hat trick with just over two minutes to play in regulation.
Kiazyk would put an exclamation point on the night, sending a ball the length of the floor into the empty cage to seal the victory for Toronto.
The Beaches managed to come out of a gruelling stretch of three games in four days with a spotless record, as they remain undefeated on the season at 7-0. They’ll try to keep the stretch going as they finish up the week with a tough road matchup against the Orangeville Northmen. Opening face-off is set for 7:00 pm ET.