A well-rounded effort from all four lines, strong defence and solid goaltending all combined to lift Shelburne past Elora both on the scoreboard and in the standings when the Muskies defeated the visiting Rock 7- 5 before a vocal crowd at the CDRC on Saturday night.

Captain Greg Patton erased an early Elora lead when he wired one high on the glove side from the blueline to even the score 1-1 at 8:47 of the first.

Chris Greer, banging away at the rebound from his own shot two minutes later, put the Fish into the lead at 2-1.

With playoff rankings and third place in the standings on the line, both teams came out wired to play and tempers soon flared, creating a steady procession to the penalty box and earning an early trip to the showers for Muskie defenceman Jamie Doig.

At the 4:52 mark, Elora capitalized on a five on three powerplay to even up at 2- 2.

Less than two minutes later though it was “Goob” again, this time picking up a pass just outside Elora’s blueline on the give and go. Patton dumped the puck between the skates of a lone defender, picking it up on the other side to go in alone on goal, tossing it upstairs over the sprawling Rock goalie to regain the lead, a lead they would not relinquish.

A powerplay goal from Kevin Shoebridge with 49 seconds remaining ended the first with Shelburne in the lead 4-2.

Sloppy play in their own end off the top of two allowed Elora to pop one past an otherwise stellar Sturrock in goal for Shelburne.

The teams traded goals cross the midway mark with Matt Lougheed tossing what looked like a harmless wristshot through traffic to restore the two goal cushion before an Elora breakaway cancelled that out at 8:45.

The Fish redeemed themselves exactly one minute later with both the Shoebridge brothers doing due diligence digging the puck out from behind the net to Greer who snapped it back into the twine for his second on the night.

Down on his knees in front of the Rock net, Trevor Downey managed getting enough of his stick onto the puck to guide it on its way to wrap up the Muskie scoring at 7-4 with 4:50 remaining in the second.

An Elora goal late in the period gave the Rocks some hope but not enough as Sturrock locked the back door repeatedly through the dying minutes to seal the score at 7-5 in favour of the Muskies.

"It was big, a huge win for us," said coach Joe Bakes after the win. "Everyone stepped up and did their job tonight. Goob played like the leader he is with two goals and we had contributions from all four lines tonight."

Heading into the stretch run, Bakes is pleased with the play of his team. "Right now, we have a loose bunch of guys who are playing with the flow and have really gelled as a team over the last few games."

Two of the guys Shelburne will definitely be counting on over the next few weeks is the goaltending combo of Josh Sturrock and Rob Senay. Commenting on how both these guys have worked between the pipes over the last weeks has given the team a lot of confidence on the back end allowing the offence the chance to go out and do their thing.

Sturrock, for his part, was "a little nervous stepping in halfway through the season," says the teams chemistry is there and that goes a long way on the ice. In addition to the support of the defence and forwards helping out on ice, he also says Senay is a big help. "Tonight when I was feeling a bit shakey, Rob talked me up between periods and helped settle me down," said Sturrock.

With the two tenders trading nights between the pipes, it will be Senay who get the next nod when the River Rats come upstream from Thornbury to meet the Muskies at the CDRC on Friday night.

Even with the Rats struggling, Shelburne cannot afford to be complacent if they want to continue their rise in the standings and with both Elora and Ripley nipping at their heels for the fourth and final berth in the A loop of the WOAA Senior Mens Hockey playoffs.

Game time for Friday nights game is 8 p.m. at the CDRC.