As less than a minute remained in overtime, little had been settled in the Joel Barlow/Weston/Abbott Tech (JBWA) hockey team in its game against Shepaug Valley last week.
The host Knights and the Spartans battled to a 1-1 tie, forcing an eight-minute extra period on Wednesday, Feb. 7. But with less than 30 seconds to go, what could be described as a fluke goal gave Shepaug Valley a 2-1 sudden victory at the Danbury Ice Arena.
It was the third one-goal loss for JBWA so far this season.
The Knights were also playing without team captain and key scorer Emmett Arees, who was sidelined due to injury.
Although a defensive battle since the opening faceoff, the game featured the Knights having the better of possession for most of the time. Despite having an 8-4 advantage in shots for the first period, they were turned away by Spartan goalie Miles Wilson. At the other end of the ice, JBWA’s Connor Thomas also helped keep things scoreless.
Not much changed as the second period got underway, although the Knights just missed on one opportunity in particular. With just under seven minutes to go Theo Spitzer came close to getting his team on the board with a shot that ricocheted off the pipe.
A slashing call put the Spartans down a player with 4:33 left but they killed off the penalty to preserve the scoreless tie after two full frames.
The Knights finally ended the stalemate in the third period. Despite being down a player due to tripping, they broke through when Dylan Staunton stole the puck from a defender and slipped it by Wilson to give his team the lead with 10:28 left in regulation time.
The Spartans, however, were quick to respond. Just over two minutes later Henry Keil scored off a pass from Conor Segers to tie it up. Barlow managed several shots the rest of the period but the tie stood.
As in regulation time, the Knights seemed to have the advantage in the extra period although it remained a 1-1 game. Shepaug Valley came close with a shot off the post with 5:08 left the contest would not be decided until the final minute.
With 28.5 second left a shot by Cameron Goethner bounced off the back of Thomas and into the net for the win, prompting celebration on the ice as well as the Shepaug Valley bench.
“Just a lucky shot with seconds to go,” said Barlow head coach Bob Stearns. “I thought we played hard physically but not a great mental game.”
JBWA, which defeated Bethel/Brookfield/Danbury 4-1 on Saturday, takes on Newtown/New Fairfield on Wednesday in Danbury at 5:30 p.m.
