Storm boys fall in overtime
The Morris Benson Area boys' hockey team lost another home game in overtime Tuesday at the Lee Community Center.
Tim Connell of the Luverne Cardinals scored 4:25 into overtime to hand the Storm a 5-4 defeat. The Storm had defeated Luverne 4-3 just 10 days earlier in Luverne. The loss dropped MBA's season record to 10-8-1 with just two games remaining in the regular season.
Brent Dinger got the Cardinals on the board first with a goal at the 4:31 mark of the opening period, but the Storm came back with two goals to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission. Peter Lindblad got the first goal for the Storm, unassisted at 10:48, and then Tyler Hansen scored on the only power play that MBA would receive on the night, assisted by Lindblad and Dustin Sauter at 12:59.
MBA goalie Will Johnson made seven saves in the period and the Cardinals' goalie, Tanner Skattum, made just two. This was the pattern for the entire game as Luverne dominated the shot column while the Storm made the most of their limited opportunities.
Dinger scored again just 35 seconds into the second period to tie the game and then the Cardinals took the lead on a Derek Van Santen goal just three minutes later. Lindblad however, would give the Storm a 4-3 lead heading into the final period by scoring twice, unassisted at 6:30, and off assists from Josh Taylor and Sauter at 12:35.
Second period saves were 14 for Johnson and three for Skattum.
Luverne scored the only goal of the third period, by Phil Paquette at the 4:16 mark to tie the score and send the game into the overtime period. MBA had to kill off a 5-on-3 power-play advantage for the Cardinals midway through the period to preserve the tie.
Johnson made 13 more saves in the third while Skattum stopped four.
Both goalies came up with two saves in the overtime period before Connell scored the game winner off of a face-off win in the Storm zone by Paquette.
MBA now hits the road to end the regular season, travelling to Wadena on Tuesday and to Long Prairie on Thursday. Both games start at 7 p.m.
