Powell Puts Wolves Past Enforcers in OT
By Jay Harris
Watertown, NY - The Watertown Wolves extended their current win streak to three games in Saturday night's victory against the Elmira Enforcers at Watertown Municipal Arena. The Wolves started their current streak when they broke Carolina's league-record 24 consecutive victories in Winston-Salem on Sunday night. The second win came at First Arena on Friday night with a 5-4 win over the Enforcers.
The contentious first period ended with a 2-0 Enforcers lead after five fights and eleven penalties. Elmira's Glen Patterson was the first to incur the wrath of Watertown's Chase Tippin after he gave a slash to Christian Whitcomb that was unseen by the officials. The Enforcers got a five-minute extra-man advantage because Patterson didn't get a chance to drop his gloves before the onslaught began. Tyler Prendergast scored the lone goal of that power play. Tippin's second altercation occurred with Brandon Vuic, who just returned from suspension, and resulted in each getting five for fighting. Twenty seconds later, Justin Coachman and Darren Lamble scrapped. In the midst of their coincidental penalties, Prendergast was also charged with slashing to put Watertown on a power play. The Wolves got an extra advantage on the next faceoff when Marko Novosel tried going after Watertown's Tyler Gjurich, giving them a 5-on-3 power play for 1:16. After not being able to capitalize on the power plays, the Wolves found themselves back on a penalty kill when new Wolf Yianni Liarakos was charged with hooking. Elmira's Kyle Stevens made the second goal of the night a minute into the power play. The final fight of the period occurred between Watertown's Justin Portillo and Elmira's JT Walters. Several repeated blows from Portillo eventually led to Walters going to the ice and each getting five for fighting. Stepan Timofeyev was charged with hooking with just twenty seconds left in the period for the eleventh and final penalty of the frame. The Watertown power play carried over into the second period.
Watertown scored two power play goals to tie the game in the second period. A boarding penalty from Dmytro Babenko and a tripping penalty from Marko Novosel provided the Wolves a 5-on-3 advantage to score. Yianni Liarakos sniped one past former Wolf Cody Porter on a play from Tyler Gjurich and Kyle Powell. League-leading scorer Gjurich tied the game up twenty seconds later with a goal of his own with Lane King and Powell assisting him.
Watertown took their first lead of the game when Tim Santopaolo got the puck from Lane King and scored on a fast break. Brendan Hussey tied the game up for Elmira five minutes later, resulting in overtime.
Kyle Powell scored the game-winning goal for Watertown just under three minutes into the overtime, going top-shelf on Porter.
The 1st Star of the Game went to Kyle Powell for the game-winning goal. Tyler Gjurich earned the 2nd Star of the Game with one goal and one assist. Lane King was credited with the 3rd Star for his three assists.
The Wolves will conclude their weekend series with the Enforcers at 6:30 PM tomorrow at the Watertown Municipal Arena.
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