The CeeBees Stars were the better team for the second consecutive game as they defeated the Clarenville Caribous 5-1 in Game Two of the Herder Memorial Championship at the Clarenville Events Centre on Sunday afternoon.
For the second straight game, the CeeBees opened the scoring as Colin Feehan squeaked one behind Caribous starting netminder Jason Churchill with just under 12 minutes remaining in the first.
The Caribous were able to draw even with just under six minutes left in the first period as Blake Gallagher fired a snap shot that beat CeeBees' starting netminder Mark Yetman just as the first penalized player of a 5-on-3 was exiting the penalty box.
The CeeBees remained strong on the puck and were able to enter the first intermission with the 2-1 lead as Daniel Sparkes scored with just 1:17 left in the opening frame.
For the next two periods, the CeeBees took control.
Near the halfway point of the second period, former Caribou Chris Hulit scored his second goal in as many days to extend the lead to 3-1.
For the second straight period, Sparkes would score in the final two minutes of the frame as the CeeBees took a 4-1 lead into the final 20 minutes.
The CeeBees weren't done there. Game One hero Robert Slaney scored his third goal of the weekend with 13:43 remaining in the game to finish off the scoring.
Churchill remained in net for all of Clarenville's goals as he made 34 saves in his second consecutive loss.
Yetman made some big saves to keep the Caribous at bay and finished the afternoon with 34 stops and the victory.
Now the series will shift to Harbour Grace for the next three games and Caribous head coach Ivan Hapgood was quick to defend his team's big loss.
"We didn't play as bad as (the CeeBees) played good," he said.
"I thought they played exceptional hockey this weekend. Today was about how good they played and how bad we played. They never gave us an opportunity. Their forecheck was at 150%. Our passing was atrocious all weekend."
Game Three is set to begin at 8pm at SW Moores Arena in Harbour Grace on Friday, March 15.
