September 29th- Fans gathered into the Poirier Sports and Leisure Complex on Sunday to witness a BCHL afternoon affair. The Coquitlam Express were looking to tie up the score after losing to Prince George on Friday, in what was yet another thrilling game. While on the other end the Spruce Kings were looking to go 3-0 on this weekend’s road trip to the south coast.
The Spruce Kings opened up the scoring early on a Skyler Pacheco screen shot from the point, but Coquitlam answered back in a big way. Just 1:24 later Cannon Pieper combined with Adam Rockwood and Corey Mackin to finish off a beautiful tic-tac-toe play, tying the game at one. Two minutes later it was Mackin's turn to be on the finishing end as a fanned shot by Ryan Rosenthal landed on his stick and all that remained for him to do was pass it into the open net.
Both teams tightened up in their defensive zones in the Second Period as chances were hard to come by. Joey Santucci, known more for his slick offensive play showed he can do it on defense too when he tracked back and broke up a two-on-one rush with a textbook hit on Spruce King forward Jeremiah Luedtke.
Goals late in Second Period and early in the Third by Karan Toor and Christian Weidauer put Prince George up by a goal at 3-2. The Express found themselves in the same situation as the game before, trying to come back from a deficit in the final frame; however, they succeeded this time. Heads up play by Ben Isreal when he flipped up the puck high in the air and out of his zone, it landed right on the stick of a streaking Ryan Rosenthal who broke away and wired a shot low glove, past Prince George goalie Alex Murray. The game was nearly ended in the final seconds of the Third Period but Express goaltender Gordie Defeil made a huge pad save in close, off the stick of Jake LeBrun.
You would be hard pressed not to find overtime in the BCHL entertaining. In the First Period of overtime both teams killed off respective four-on-three's in anyway possible, from throwing bodies in front of shots to diving along the ice to make clearances. Next, up three-on-three in the Second Overtime which left acres of open ice for teams to work with. Unfortunately for the Express, Prince George was able to take advantage first, scoring the game winner 29 seconds in courtesy of Bryant Christian.
Another close game that unluckily didn't go the way they would have liked according to Express captain Ryan Roesnthal, "we battled really hard tonight, I thought we did a lot of things well, we out shot them and had a lot of chances". Rosenthal, who was awarded the game's first-star, had a goal and an assist on the night. He also talked about his huge goal in the Third Period, "it was a really good chip pass in the air and it happened to bounce past the defenseman, I picked it up and had a breakaway". The Monvale, New Jersey native's speed and awareness both played a crucial role on finishing the goal.
Coquitlam picked up a single point with the overtime loss, improving their season tally to eight. Their next chance to get back on the winning trend comes October 4th, when they host the Chilliwack Chiefs.
