The La Ronge Ice Wolves came from behind and beat the Notre Dame Hounds 4-3 in a shootout Sunday at home.
“I give that team (Notre Dame) credit, they played hard, they played smart, they probably deserved a little bit better tonight,” said Ice Wolves Head Coach and GM Kevin Kaminski. “Fortunately for us, we didn’t panic, we stayed composed.”
The Hounds opened the scoring 12:19 into the first period when Ben Hamilton beat Xavier Cannon between the wickets for his third of the season. Notre Dame took a 2-0 advantage 14:11 into the stanza when Curtis Wiebe flew down the right side and scored his first of the night.
The Ice Wolves would cut the lead to one 17:57 into the first when Stewart Pond banked home his fourth of the season past Logan Dyck, who made 39 saves in the loss.
Neither team would score in the second period, but Notre Dame took a 3-1 advantage 5:34 into the third when Curtis Wiebe would tally his second of the evening. The Ice Wolves did not fold up their tent though. Jake Gudjonson made it a 3-2 game 14:35 into the third when he potted his 19th of the season on a goalmouth scramble. The Ice Wolves would tie the game at three with 58 seconds remaining in regulation when Daylon Mannon sent a rocket past Dyck from the left circle. It was Mannon’s team-leading 35th goal of the season.
Overtime would solve nothing, so for the fourth time this season, the Ice Wolves needed a shootout. La Ronge’s Kyle Ford had the only goal of the shootout and Xavier Cannon stopped all three Notre Dame shooters, as the Ice Wolves recorded their first shootout victory of the 2019-20 campaign.
“It shows character across the room, everybody buys in, everybody wants to win so bad,” said La Ronge forward Kyle Ford. “Never in my mind did I think we were going to lose this game today.”
With the victory, the Ice Wolves improved to 31-19-6, which vaulted them into sole possession of fourth place in the very crowded SJHL standings. The Ice Wolves are now just a point back of the Yorkton Terriers for third overall.
La Ronge will look for its third straight victory on Friday night at home when the Flin Flon Bombers come to the Mel Hegland Uniplex for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop. The Ice Wolves will then close out the regular season Saturday at the Whitney Forum versus the Bombers.
You can catch Saturday’s game in Flin Flon live on MBC Network Radio with Braden Malsbury.
(PHOTO: The Ice Wolves celebrate their win Sunday. Photo courtesy of Braden Malsbury.)