Team Sites
Follow the BCHL
BCHL

A wild Sunday afternoon at the Poirier ends with overtime heroics

Coquitlam decided they wanted a little theatrics this Sunday afternoon as they provided perhaps the most turbulent rollercoaster of emotions their fans have experienced this season. The Express gave up a few early goals, proceeded to have their best offensive explosion of the season, then gave up a three goal lead, only to win it all in overtime courtesy of Joseph Odyniec.

Langley knew they had to get a good start to this contest to banish their demons from the Brooks Bandits game Friday night. Nothing better than two goals to establish an early lock on the flow of play. Ryan Schelling came away with both of the opening period markers, first by taking advantage of a potential missed call by the officials that gave him a wide open lane down the middle of the zone. His second goal was a beautiful chip shot worthy of the PGA Tour as he managed to sneak one over the shoulders of Eric Young right off the faceoff draw.

Enter the beautiful spectacle that was the second period. Coquitlam have been a good offensive team this season but they have yet to produce fireworks that burned quite this bright. Joseph Odyniec kicked off the bonanza by banging home a rebound on the powerplay. Two minutes later Mitch Kneidel made a great play to generate a turnover and pass to Nate Crema for a one timer right in the slot. Less than a minute after that the avalanche continued to roll down the mountain as Jackson Krill got the monkey off his back, scoring his first of the season. The Port Moody product let a wicked wrist shot go from the right circle following a rebound and it whistled by Charlie Tritt. Following that, Nate Crema would enter his name on the statline again with a shorthanded effort this time. Using his breakneck speed, he flew down the wing and made a nice backhand-forehand deke to get Tritt moving to the side and slid the puck home. Last but certainly not least, the cherry on top was Mitch Kneidel’s first career BCHL goal. Trip Pendy and Kneidel went on a two-on-one break and Mitch squared up for the one timer all the way. Pendy flipped him the perfect saucer pass and Kneidel put a hurt on the puck, slapping it into the top of the goal.

It all went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in the third period as Coquitlam built a three goal lead, and then lost it all. Ryan Schelling completed his hat trick, followed by Dalton MacGillivray’s first of the season, and concluding with Sid McNeil jamming home a loose puck in front of the goal. On the other end Brayden Burrows stood on his head and made some wonderful saves to keep the Langley hopes alive. Burrows had come into the game following Charlie Tritt’s departure after giving up the fourth goal shorthanded to Nate Crema. This afternoon was destined for longer than 60 minutes.

And so to overtime the game went. The Express held most of the possession time and kept the Rivermen to the outside for any of their counterattacks. But it found its end in a most familiar way.

The Rivermen had the puck behind their own goal and were waiting to set up their next play, when Adyn Merrick had an all time bad luck moment. He tried to send a stretch pass to the neutral zone and his stick snapped. The puck trickled towards the Langley blueline where Joseph Odyniec pounced on it, drove hard to the goal and ended the game. This is his third game winner in recent memory dating back to the wild 14 seconds remaining goal in Chilliwack. Last weekend on Friday it was also him who scored the overtime winner against the Rivermen.

This game has so many takeaways for the Express, on both ends of the spectrum. It reaffirms this is a team that can score and do so in bunches. If guys like Jackson Krill are on the verge of an offensive outburst, on top of the production Coquitlam are already getting, then teams should be very wary. The killer instinct took a period off though. Coquitlam built a 5-2 lead off that immense five goal run in the second period but could not defend it in the third. Jeff Wagner after the game took a lot of ownership on setting the tone on the bench and noted that he felt the first and third were not handled the right way emotionally from his own perspective and feels that can transfer to the players. In the end, Coquitlam dug in once the game was tied and could have retaken the lead if not for quality goaltending. Then in the extra frame they remained locked in when push came to shove.

The Express must take the good and bad from this game and learn lessons from both. The truth of the matter is that not all games will be pretty, but this one was still just a bit spectacular in its own way.

Up next for Coquitlam is a trip to the island as they take on Nanaimo this coming Friday night and then head to Alberni Valley on Saturday.

FORTIS BC ENERGY PLAYER – Mitch Kneidel

MARINER BREWING THREE STARS

3rd – COQ – Nate Crema – 2G (1 Shorthanded)

2nd – LAN – Ryan Schelling – Hat Trick

1st – COQ – Joseph Odyniec – 1 Powerplay Goal, Scored OT Winner

BOXSCORE

– Ian Wilson