The dream season for the Huntsville Muskoka Otters is over.

Leading 4-3 and with less than three minutes away from eliminating the Stouffville Spirit in Game 7 of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League’s North Division semifinals Tuesday night, the Otters surrendered the tying goal which sent the game into overtime.

There, the pesky Spirit, a team that finished 17 points behind the Otters in the league’s regular season standings, netted the winner at the 2:58 mark to take the series four games to three.

Huntsville won Game 5 in the series 3-2 at home last Friday and needed to win only one of the final two games to eliminate the Spirit and move onto the divisional finals against the Aurora Tigers.

But the Spirit showed their mettle and took Game 6 at home by a 3-1 score, setting the stage for the deciding game Tuesday at the Jack Bionda Arena.

The 811 fans were quieted early in the first period – save for the Stouffville faithful who occupied a corner of the arena – when the Spirit took a 1-0 lead on a powerplay marker by Mark Sullivan that flew past a screened Jeff Dawson in the Huntsville goal.

The goal kept Stouffville’s streak of scoring the opening marker in each of the previous six games alive.

The Spirit went up 2-0 five minutes later when James MacIntosh one-timed a pass from Corey Trevino on a two-one-one.

Huntsville had two good chances to close the gap soon after that goal but Spirit netminder Trevor O’Neill closed the door.

The Otters finally got on the board at the 14:04 mark when Ken Carswell tapped the puck into a yawning cage to make the score 2-1.

The Spirit almost went ahead 3-1 one when Dawson misplayed a puck near his crease and nearly allowed it to skip past him into the open side.

Ironically, that missed play seemed to ignite the Otters, who pressed for the equalizer before the end of the period. However, they couldn’t capitalize and the two sides went into the first intermission with the lead in Stouffville’s hands, but the momentum clearly in Huntsville’s favour.

The Spirit nearly killed that momentum with a Jonathan Cristini goal at 7:37 of the second.

The Otters continued to press, but it wasn’t until the 14:06 mark when their efforts paid off. Ron Rogers carried the puck down the right side and dropped it for Josh Vatri, who slapped it past O’Neill’s glove, making the score 3-2.

Vatri tied the score less than two minutes later when he scored shorthanded. He waited for O’Neill to make his move before he snapped it over the goalie’s left side.

Brad Williams made it 4-3 for the Otters at 7:06 of the third. Huntsville held the lead until 17:18 when Sullivan counted his second of the game, sending the game into overtime.

Corey Trevino, who was named the game’s first star, dashed Huntsville’s hopes for a North Division title when he scored less than three minutes into the extra frame.

Huntsville is the second team to get a bye in the North Division and lose the opening series. Newmarket, which finished second in the division, was eliminated in five games by Aurora.