Cats knock off Bucs 3-2 in overtime thriller in Nanaimo

Novermber 7th, 2019
Nanaimo, British Columbia

It took Logan Speirs all of 12 seconds to pot the winner in the overtime period.  His goal in the extra frame broke the collective heart of the Nanaimo Buccaneers and allowed the Panthers to excape the Nanaimo Ice Centre with a hard-fought 3-2 win.  The Club ran their win streak to five games and will look to extend it Friday night when the welcome in the Campbell River Storm to the friendly confines of the Panorama Recreation Centre.

Coach Brad Tippett was spoken to in the lobby of the NIC just before departing in the team bus for the Greater Victoria area and had only a couple comments as he was already looking forward to the engagement with the Storm in less than 24 hours.

"It was an extremely hard fought game. We had plenty of shots and scoring opportunities but we made it much too easy on their goalie shooting high at times, missing the net at other times and almost always having no traffic in front. We had good puck movement however and I felt that we displayed the best forecheck we have had in a while. It was good to see the some different numbers in the scoresheet tonight."

The Buccaneers Connor Stephenson opened the scoring on the powerplay midway through the initial frame when a Panthers forward failed to clear the puck from the high slot and coughed it up.  And a second later a snap shot from right in front beat Panthers starter Connor McKillop.  Panthers Captain Thomas Spink knotted the game at 1-1 at the 17:20 mark when he beat Bucs netminder Austin Dendl. Josh Lingard and Tanner Wort garnered helpers on the marker.

Jonah Ragsdale was the lone marksman in the middle stanza on what might have been the prettiest goal of the evening.  Speirs gathered in the disk in the neutral zone and on the power play and skated cross ice bringing Buccaneers checking pressure with him.  He reversed the puck to Spink who hit the Nanaimo blue line along the left wall and while at full speed.  Spink wheeled down the wall and around the net behind Dendl before feeding Ragsdale who was stationed ten feet out and to the right of the stopper.  And Ragsdale wasted not a second as he blasted the go-ahead marker past Dendl for a 2-1 Cats lead.

The Panthers had a miriad of chances in the final frame but Dendl was up to the task.  And at the 10:13 mark and once again on the power play the Bucs would strike.  Dylan Hartl blasted a puck along the ice towards McKillop and it wouldbe Chase Heslop who would deflect the puck to the top of the cage over the shoulder of McKillop to tie the game once again, this time at 2-2.  Nothing would be solved in regulation time.

The puck was dropped in the 3-on-3 overtime period with Speirs, Denver Maloney and Skyler Diamond-Burchuck on the ice for the visitors.  Speirs and Maloney got the puck deep into Bucs end and it set the stage for Speirs to wear the shirt with the big "S" on his chest and he managed to beat Dendl from 18 inches out for the winner.

There was some quiet conversation on the way home and as the bus rolled to a stop Head Coach Brad Tippett stood up and gave a short and sharp message to his Club. 
"Good job and good win tonight.  Meeting at 5:45 pm tomorrow night."

The Bucs game was already in the rear view mirror.  Up next is the Campbell River Storm Friday evening with the puck set to drop at 7:30 pm.