The Wildcats gave #1 state ranked St. Francis their second loss of the season and first in league play this past Saturday with a thrilling 2-1 shootout win.
St. Francis struck first on a goal by Scott Loy just over 6 minutes into the game. Unlike the previous 2 games the Cats didn’t let the early deficit get to them and stayed discipline in their attack. Aaron Booth responded for the Cats later in the period on a beautiful individual effort to tie the score at 1. After beating St. Francis Defenceman Ross Pilmore wide Booth was able to drag the puck past another St. Francis D-man before knocking the water bottle off the net with a top shelf snipe.
The second, third and overtime periods were back and forth hard fought play with both teams and goalies doing their best to win it. However after 53 minutes of play the score remained tied at 1. Due to an adopted rule for a shootout this year the teams would have to settle it in breakaway fashion. Insert Austin Gryca. He had delivered many quality saves to get to this point, but saved his best for the shootout. He stopped 3 of the top goal scorers in the league in 4 attempts and Dalton Carter and Booth scored to set up Nolan Culver for the dramatic conclusion. Culver deeked to his back hand before lifting a shot under the bar to send the Northview faithful into hysteria!
With the win the Cats moved their overall record to 13-8-3 and 5-2 in league play. This weekend the Cats take on Southview for the Mayors cup, before traveling to B.G. with a game versus the Bobcats on Sunday.
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