Pronghorns get the point
scored with eight seconds left in regulation with the extra attacker to force overtime and guarantee Lethbridge at least one point while goaltender Taz Burman made a whopping 56 saves in doing his part to secure the point that moves Lethbridge to 4-7-1-0.
But with White off for tripping late in the first overtime, the Golden Bears took advantage as Luke Philp scored on the power play with seven seconds remaining to give Alberta a four-point weekend following a 5-2 win Friday night at Nicholas Sheran Arena.
“Obviously Taz had a huge game for us and I think everybody wants to play for Taz and get him a win,” said White, who has four goals and six points in six games this season. “He’s a great guy in the room, so it’s disappointing with the outcome. But he played an unbelievable game and I think everybody kept a good demeanour on the bench. I think that was the difference between today and (Friday) night. Last night we kind of folded a little bit, but today we just kept pushing and pushing right until the last 10 seconds. It’s disappointing we got the loss, but it’s a pretty big point against a really good team.”
The Pronghorns held a 1-0 lead after the first period on a goal from Justin Valentino before the Golden Bears pulled even 2:03 into the second as Jayden Hart put one of four shots past Burman.
Lethbridge got the lead back a little over six minutes later on Sam McKechnie’s second goal of the season, but Alberta’s Grayson Pawlenchuk sent the teams into the second intermission tied at 2-2.
The Golden Bears took their first lead of the game 8:41 into the third on a goal from Tyson Baille.
With the final seconds ticking away and with Burman on the bench, the Horns made one last push.
“I got the puck in the neutral zone and I knew there wasn’t much time, so I threw it in deep,” said White. “I ended up catching it and I just thought ‘Get it on net’ good things happened. I guess that’ss some good karma for our resilience all night.”
That wasn’t lost on Pronghorns head coach Murray Nystrom.
“I told the guys what I was pleased the most about is that we punched the time clock today. A lot of things occurred in the game that we were prepared for. We knew there were going to be shifts where there may be extended time in our zone and I think what we’ve done in those situations as the semester has gone on is we’ve just levelled out the emotional roller coaster. We don’t let something that doesn’t go our way turn into something worse. From that regard, I thought we did a good job and gave ourselves a chance to win a hockey game. In the last 10 minutes we picked our spots and made a push and got that tying goal. I think that’s a significant move forward for us. But we have two weekends of play left and we got to quickly turn the page and focusing on those weekends.”
On the women’s side, the Pronghorns were downed 5-1 by the Alberta Pandas Saturday afternoon in Edmonton.
Like the men, the women’s team won’t come home empty-handed, having taken a point off Alberta Friday night in a 1-0 shootout loss.
Delaney Duchek gave the Horns a 1-0 lead 7:33 into the game, but the Pandas rattled off five unanswered goals to post the win that puts Lethbridge at 3-7-0-2.
The Pronghorns play a home-and-home series with the Mount Royal University Cougars this weekend.
The Horns men host the Cougars Friday night at 7 p.m. at Nicholas Sheran Arena, while the women start on the road in Calgary.
The Pronghorns women return to Nicholas Sheran at 7 p.m. Saturday to take on the Cougars in the rematch.
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