A valiant comeback by the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks fell just short as they dropped an overtime decision to the Durham Thundercats.
The Winterhawks erased a two-goal deficit in the 3rd period to force the extra frame, but a bouncing puck off the stick of Bill Terpstra found the back of the net with five seconds left to give Durham a 6-5 win.
The Thundercats came out flying in this one, staking themselves to a 2-0 lead by the time the game was seven minutes old, with Terpstra and Brendon Reay scoring.
Andy Mitchell cut the lead to 2-1 on a beauty feed by Dave Grant, but Durham scored two more to end the period, making it 4-1 Durham after one period.
Starting netminder Josh Sturrock left the game after the 1st period with a lower body injury and did not return. He was replaced in goal by Kevin McGivern.
The Winterhawks started climbing out of the hole early in the 2nd, when Greg Wardell scored a vintage goal straight out of 1987, stepping in over the Durham blueline and blasting a slapshot past Gatlin Burt, who charged well out of the net, but couldn't make the save. Kyle Roulston assisted on the goal.
Newly re-signed defenceman Justin Ainslie was forced to leave the game at that point due to a broken skate and he was unable to return.
The Winterhawks got to within a goal at 7:26 of the 2nd, when Curtis Johnston got just enough of a centering pass from Bryan Kazarian to beat Burt to make it 4-3.
Durham answered right back on a howitzer from the point by Dean Nixon to restore the two goal lead at 5-3.
Blake Underwood made things interesting early in the 3rd period, cutting the Durham lead to one goal yet again with a sharp-angle shot that beat Burt to make it 5-4 just 1:20 into the 3rd.
The Winterhawks pressed hard for the equalizer, but it came down to the final seconds before they could tie things up.
With the Winterhawks on a powerplay and McGivern pulled in favour of an extra attacker, Saugeen Shores poured on the pressure, with Kazarian finding Johnston in the slot with 47 seconds left, beating Burt to send the game to overtime, setting up Terpstra's winning goal.
The overtime loss moves the Winterhawks record to 8-8-2 on the season. The point for the overtime loss plus Shallow Lake's own overtime win over Shelburne puts the Winterhawks, Shallow Lake and Ripley in a three-way tie for 3rd place in the WOAA's North Division.
The tie won't last for long, however, as the Winterhawks will be in Ripley tonight (Saturday) for a 7:30 p.m. start against the Wolves. Shallow Lake has the night off, but will host Durham on Sunday.
with files from winterhawks.net
