The Osoyoos Coyotes played a perfect opening period, Tuesday night in Princeton, but couldn’t hold off the league-leading Posse the remainder of the game, eventually bowing 6-5 in overtime.
Ethan Picklyk and Nicholas Vopat both scored their first Junior hockey goals, with a Mason Rudolph marker sandwiched between, to take a surprising 3-0 advantage into the dressing room after 20 minutes, outshooting the Posse 13-8.
One just knew Princeton would come out flying in the second, which it did, connecting three times in less than six minutes to tie the game 3-3.
Mason Rudolph’s second of night on the powerplay, just over a minute later, put the Coyotes back in front.
The Posse wouldn’t be denied before the second period was out, leaving things deadlocked at 4-4 headed for the third.
It took only 31 seconds of the third period for Princeton to go ahead 5-4.
However, Steve Andrusiak drew Osoyoos even near the halfway point of the period.
The Coyotes were admittedly hanging on the rest of regulation, able to force overtime.
With two overtime victories and a shootout win already under their belts, the extra game magic ended when the Posse scored at 1:44 of three-on-three sudden death.
Rudolph and Vopat had three points apiece, Rudolph adding an assist and Vopat contributing a pair of helpers.
Hunter Arntsen was pretty much the reason the Coyotes escaped with at least one point, during the often chippy affair. Despite allowing six goals, he stopped 48 shots. A somewhat homer laden shots on goal tally showed 54-26 overall in favour of Princeton.
The now 6-6-0-1 Osoyoos Coyotes get set to host another difficult Bill Ohlhausen Division opponent, the Revelstoke Grizzlies, this coming Saturday (Nov. 2nd) at 7:00 pm, featuring Game Sponsor Save on Foods.
