It took 110 minutes before a winning goal was scored on Thursday night as the seventh-seeded Lakehead Thunderwolves defeated the second-seeded York University Lions by a score of 3-2 in the opening game of their OUA first-round playoff series.
After twice coming back from a goal down in the game, the Thunderwolves finally ended it in the middle of the third overtime period on a goal by Dylan Butler, giving Lakehead a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three series.
The 50:07 of overtime was the third-longest U SPORTS men's hockey game in history and second overall in the OUA. The game time was just six seconds shorter than the OUA's longest game, ironically another Lakehead-York match-up on Feb. 14, 2007 that ended with the same winner and by the same score. The record for the longest U SPORTS game belongs to UNB and Acadia, also by a 3-2 score in 61:03 total extra time.
After Butler, the story of the game was York goaltender
Mack Shields, who made 73 saves in the contest as the Lions were outshot 76-51, including 40-24 after regulation. His counterpart at the other end of the ice, Nic Renyard, was also impressive with 49 saves and making just enough to allow his team to finalize capitalize.
It was the Lions who got on the scoreboard first and they wasted little time doing so.
Josh LaFrance, who tied for the team lead in goals in the regular season, opened the scoring just 39 seconds in for a 1-0 lead. The Thunderwolves got it back 10 minutes later, however, with a power play tally by Sam Schutt. The score remained 1-0 after the first period.
The Lions took another lead 4:31 into the second period on a power play goal of their own, scored by
Reid Jackman, and they carried their 2-1 advantage into the third period.
At the start of the third it was the host Thunderwolves who scored early as E.J. Faust found the back of the net less than two minutes in to once again level the score.
That goal was it until 110:07, when a winner was finally determined thanks to Butler.
The two teams will now travel to Toronto for the rest of the series, and the Lions will look to send it to a deciding third contest with a Game 2 victory. Puck drops on the second game at Canlan Ice Sports on Saturday night at 7pm.
