The Kings need overtime to win it in Edmonton, score 30 seconds into the extra time
Edmonton, February 17, 2023 – The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings walked away with an overtime victory in Edmonton against the NAIT Ooks.
The Ooks would open the scoring in their own arena 12 minutes into the game. In the midst of a scramble in front of Kings goaltender Arik Weersink (Business Administration), forward Dylan Stewart (Open Studies) picked up the loose puck in front of the net and would fire it home to take the early lead.
But within a minute, the Kings struck back to tie it up at one. Forward Chance Longjohn (Bachelor of Education) sent his linemate Hayden Clayton (Open Studies) on a partial breakaway and he would wrist it home with authority, finding the top corner.
With just two minutes left to go the Ooks would extend their lead with a beautiful wrap-around goal from Stewart for his second of the game.
It looked like the Kings would go to their dressing room at the end of the period down by one but forward Nolan Doell (Bachelor of Education) found a loose puck off a rebound and would put it into the wide open net to tie it up at two.
RDP would take their first lead in the game 11 minutes into the second period. Doell skated with the puck alongside his teammate Liam Stalwick on a two-on-one. Doell sauced over a pass to Stalwick (Open Studies) for a one-timer into the back of the net, which was his first goal of the season.
With two minutes left to go, three goals were scored. First, the Ooks would tie it up as forward Eric Lacombe (Bachelor of Business Administration) would trickle it by Weersink. On the powerplay and with a minute to go, Clayton would score his second of the game after deflecting a pass from Longjohn past the Ooks goaltender to regain his team's one-goal lead.
NAIT would open the third goal by scoring five minutes into the game. Rookie Rintaro Mashio (English Second Language) would drive hard to the net and fired one past the glove of Weersink to tie the game up at four.
At the end of regulation time, the game remained tied at four and would need overtime.
Seconds into the extra time, Kings forward Ryland McNinch (Bachelor of Education) would one-time a pass home for the 5-4 win. Forward Nolan Doell was named the player of the game for his goal and effort tonight in the win.
The Kings will be back in action tomorrow night in Red Deer as they look for the sweep of the Ooks at 7 pm as they will be playing in front of 50-plus years of Kings Hockey alumni.