Fifteen seasons of Brampton Battalion hockey came to a heartbreaking end Friday.
Evan de Haan scored at 6:23 of overtime to lift the Sudbury Wolves to a 1-0 win over the host Battalion in Ontario Hockey League playoff action Friday.
Battalion goaltender Jake Smith stopped Michael Kantor’s shot, but de Haan was able to poke home the rebound before Smith could slide across the crease.
The victory moves Sudbury into the Eastern Conference semifinals after taking the first-round matchup 4-1 while Brampton played its final game at the Powerade Centre as the club is moving to North Bay, Ont., for the 2013-14 season.
Sudbury’s Franky Palazzese was spectacular in front of 2,903 fans, stopping 35 shots including a high-light reel glove save on Blake Clarke moments before de Haan’s clincher. Smith made 21 saves in defeat.
Both teams went 0 for 3 on the power play.
Elsewhere in the OHL, it was: Kitchener 4, Guelph 2; Owen Sound 5, Sault Ste. Marie 3 and Oshawa 3, Niagara 2.
At Brampton, Ont., the Wolves outscored their opponents 15-13 in the series and needed overtime twice to eliminate the Battalion. Mathew Campagna led Sudbury in scoring with two goals and six points while Clarke was Brampton’s top scorer in the series with three goals and three assists.
The Battalion had taken the first game of the series but the Wolves roared back with four straight wins, including a 5-4 overtime thriller on home ice on Thursday.
Sudbury will face either the Belleville Bulls or the Oshawa Generals in the second round.
Brampton will begin play at a newly-renovated Memorial Gardens in North Bay this upcoming fall. This will be North Bay’s second tenure with the OHL, having housed the Centennials from 1982 to 2002. That team relocated to Michigan to become the Saginaw Spirit.
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Rangers 4 Storm 2
At Kitchener, Ont., Tobias Rieder scored once and set up three more and John Gibson stopped 35-of-37 shots as the Rangers eliminated Guelph from post-season play 4-1 in its first-round matchup.
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Attack 5 Greyhounds 3
At Owen Sound, Ont., Gemel Smith had two goals and two assists and Daniel Catenacci also scored twice as the Attack beat Sault Ste. Marie to take a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 scheduled for Sunday.
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Generals 3 IceDogs 2
At Oshawa, Ont., Boone Jenner scored twice, including Oshawa’s first power-play goal of the series, and Daniel Altshuller made 18 saves as the Generals took their first-round matchup against Niagara 4-1.