DELTA, BC – Wolf Pack goaltender Remy Quintoro made his return to the Ladner Leisure Centre, facing down his former teammates for the first time since being traded from Delta to North Van. The game took on a frenetic pace early on as Miller Bruckshaw guided a bouncing puck into perfect position to open the scoring, netting his second goal of the season.
With Delta buzzing early on, Ryden Mathieson dished the puck to Dylan Stafford on a quick face-off play, then redirected Stafford’s shot into the net to extend the Hawks’ lead to two.
North Van forward Lucas Davidson managed to get a puck past Delta goaltender Merik Erickson to get his club onto the score sheet, sending the teams to the dressing rooms with a 2-1 score in favour of the home side Hawks.
The action cooled off in the early goings of the second period, with occasional penalties called against both sides. Past the media timeout, and with NV’s Jared Bigelow in the box for cross-checking, Mateo Sjoberg regained his solo stranglehold on the PJHL’s goal-scoring race, earning his 20th tuck of the campaign. Brandon Petrie joined in on the goal-scoring fun with his second of the season assisted by Sjoberg to make it a 4-1 contest.
As the clock ticked down on the middle frame, the festivities kicked up a notch yet again as Wolf Pack rookie Max Dorodnov caught a good break for his first PJHL goal. Not to be outdone, Ice Hawks rookie blueliner Owen Cooper put away his first goal in the league to re-establish Delta’s 3-goal advantage.
Changing it up in the 3rd period, North Van would collect the first goal of the period thanks to Tanner Terness cleaning up on a rebound. The momentum swung in the Wolf Pack’s favour, as the ever-present Andrew Casellato (assisting Dorodnov and Terness earlier) scored to cut the lead to a single goal.
Keeping things interesting, Sjoberg tidied up a nice backdoor pass from Mathieson for his second goal of the game and 21st of the campaign. North Van answered quickly thanks to Owen McGrogan, setting the score at 6-5 in Delta’s favour.
Staving off some late pressure, North Van pulled Quintoro for the extra attacker. With 26 seconds remaining, Erickson made an absolutely game-breaking save to keep the game tied, but it was North Van’s captain Jason Scott with the late dramatics, scoring with 0.2 seconds remaining to tie the game at 6-all.
North Vancouver’s Matteo Pero received a pass in tight from McGrogan to catch a sprawling Erickson for the overtime winner with a minute and 29 seconds left in the extra frame. With the comeback complete, the Wolf Pack win 7-5, avenging their 5-2 defeat from September 14th and keeping the road teams perfect in the NV-DEL season series. Quintoro made 38 saves on 44 shots in his team’s victory, as Erickson made 34 stops out of 41.
