MIMICO, ON (July 5, 2024) — The Toronto Beaches jumped out to an early lead against the Mimico Mountaineers on Friday night and didn’t look back, going on to beat their cross-town rivals 14-4 at Mimico Arena.
Will Sheehan and Willem Firth led the way offensively for the Beaches, with the former having a five-goal, nine-point night while the latter finished with a hat trick and eight points.
Matt Collison also chipped in a seven-point effort, including five helpers. Thomas Kiazyk was a wall in net for Toronto, finishing the night with 55 saves and just two goals allowed across two periods. Backup Nick Parolin came in to finish off the third, helping seal the victory for his squad.
The Beaches found themselves on the penalty kill early, with Sheehan going off for an illegal cross-check just over three minutes into regulation. But Toronto flipped the script on the man down, scoring a pair to get out to an early advantage. Owen Wills head manned a pass to Eric McDonald, who made no mistake, beating Nate Whittom for the shorthanded tally. The pair would connect again just over a minute later, with McDonald repaying the favour, springing Wills for another transition marker at the 15:09 mark of the opening period.
Back-to-back goals from Peyton Booth would push the lead to 4-0 early, and despite a Mark Watters goal off of a scramble play, Sheehan found twine with just over five minutes left in the period to push the Beaches to a 5-1 advantage through 20.
Coming back out for the second, it was a continued run for the visitors, with Matt Collison capitalizing with a short-side finish on the crease just 1:31 into the second before Sheehan and Firth added two goals apiece to put Toronto up 10-1 at the 6:30 mark of the frame. Finn Thomson stopped the Mimico skid with a power-play goal of his own with 41 seconds left, but Sheehan got his third of the period and fourth of the evening with just two seconds left in the period after he was left unattended with the goalie pulled for a quick step down shot.
As the game began to fall into the clutches of the Beaches in the middle stanza, the game got very chippy, with multiple fights and ejections in tow. Eric McDonald and Aaron Toguri shed the mitts and went toe to toe in a spirited tilt, with each getting the gate an a game misconduct after the dust settled. Jordan Vincent was also tossed after a pair of five-minute majors for a skirmish with Jack Woynarski.
Toronto carried an 11-2 lead into the final frame, with the nine-goal lead being enough for the franchise to capture the Crombie Cup on the road. Kiazyk shut the door through 40 minutes and was rewarded with some rest in the third, as Parolin entered to shut the game down in the final period.
The Beaches did what they needed to do to put insurance on the board and put the game to bed. Sheehan scored 38 seconds into the third, and he was followed by goals from Collison and Firth, pushing the Beaches to a 14-2 lead. Mimico spent some extra time in the box on a pair of boarding majors — Thomson taking one and Angus MacDonell another.
Justin Lee and Alex Roussel got the final two goals of the game for the hosts, but it was a 10-goal victory for the Beaches. With the victory, the Beaches sit in the seventh seed in the OJLL standings going into the final week of the regular season. They’ll have their final test of the regular season against Oakville at Ted Reeve Arena. Face-off is slated for 8:00 p.m. ET.