NEWS

By Harley Kock

 

It took more than 60 minutes of play but the West Durham Ironheads knocked off the Kahnawake Hunters 12-10 in overtime to improve to 2-0 on the year. 

 

Things got a little scary in the first when Ironheads goalie Tyler Newman went to the sidelines with a back injury and was replaced by rookie netminder Wesley Carew. Luckily for West Durham, the veteran goalie would be ok returning later in the period.

 

Ironheads jumped out to a big 7-2 lead in the first period. One of those seven tallies were registered by  Cyle Ropson,  which was the veteran forward's 100th point of his junior career. 

 

West Durham looked to be in control after trading early goals in the second making the score 8-3, but the Hunters were not going away though, scoring four of the next five goals and were down by just two going into the final frame.

 

Ironheads found themselves up one late, thanks to some big saves from Newman. With the extra attacker, the Hunters found the back of the cage with  three seconds left on the clock to send the game into overtime. 

 

Extra time went scoreless for almost the first eight minutes before Jacob Hickey got what would be the game winner. It was just the second game of the Hickey's young junior career, but Hickey already has tallied eight points for the I-Heads

“It felt good, it’s only my second game with the team but I've gotta hand it to the defence, they battled all overtime. It wasn’t pretty but we got it done.”

 

Cameron McGinnis added some insurance with under 30 seconds left as the Ironheads went on to win 12-10 and move to 2-0 to start the season.

 

“I think the guys stayed positive on the bench there, which has been good this season," said Offensive Coach Brock Levick.  "We struggled with that last year, and Newman came in, made a couple big saves there which helped us ease the bench a bit.”

 

It's a quick turn around for the Ironheads as they host the 3-0 Akwesasne Indians tomorrow at 2 p.m..