The Howe Sound Men's Hockey League continues to do its best to draw out the tension.
The Code Blue Chiefs looked poised to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five championship finals Wednesday night (March 30) at Brennan Park. But the Cinderella story hit a snag in the second period as the Heli-Riggen Flyers stormed back from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game, then tie the series at a game apiece in an overtime shootout.
The Chiefs opened the scoring less than three minutes in on a Mike Bishop tally from Chris Kormendy and Ora Ramage, only to see the Flyers' Jason Vanzella knot it up on a power play.
The Chiefs then stormed ahead with three big goals in the last five minutes of the frame.
Chris Kormendy stormed down the ice and put the Chiefs up 2-1, then McDonald then came out of the penalty box to feed Kormendy, who got the puck to Ora Ramage to make it 3-1 for the Chiefs. Bishop got his second of the night off a Dan Richards pass with just over a minute left to give the underdogs a commanding 4-1 lead going into the second period.
But the Flyers got the momentum back early in the second with another Vanzella goal off Jason Robertson and Maurice Mountenay a mere 13 seconds in to make it a two-goal game.
"That sparked our whole bench and fired us up," said the Flyers' Steve Hadden, forced to coach his team rather than back them up in net after suffering a broken arm in the semifinals.
Five minutes later, with the Chiefs' Matt Cook in the box for elbowing, Clark Jensen got the Flyers back within one with helpers from Scott Jensen and Leon Renfro. Less than a minute later, Dan Sargent knotted it up on assists from Travis Moyle and Scott Jenson.
Five minutes of sudden-death overtime solved nothing, sending the game to a best-of-three shootout. McNutt solved Moyle on the first Flyers' attempt while Flyers' goalie Steve Wuthrich stopped Brandon Reilly. Vanzella made it a hat trick on his shot to put the Flyers up 1-0, while the Chiefs' Kormendy missed his chance. Scott Jensen hit the twine for the Flyers to clinch the win and tie the series at one game each.
Game 3 goes tonight (April 1) at 9:55 p.m. at Brennan Park, with game 4 Sunday (April 3) at 7:45 p.m. If necessary, the teams will take to the ice for game five on Wednesday (April 6) at 8:45 p.m.
Hadden was full of praise for his rivals.
"The Chiefs have elevated their game," he said. "They're playing really well. All the guys are contributing on their team and they're working really hard and keeping us from doing the things we want to do.
"It's an even, even series. It's going to be a lucky break one way or another."
