Pitbulls Take The OT Win Against The Lightning In The Pound

By Xanthe Boursier-Gazzard

The Bristol Drive North Pitbulls skated away with an overtime win against the Milton Keynes Lightning in the Pound on Saturday for our annual Air the Bear game, with all donations contributing towards the Southwest Hospice.

Opportunities came for both teams in the opening minutes, with Jordan Spadafore making an early attempt on net before a hooking penalty was called for Daniels Fadejevs, giving the Pitbulls their first opportunity on the power play. Jake Bricknell took advantage of this to put the home team one goal up before the first intermission.

The Lightning responded heading into the second period as Illia Korenchuk struck a shot to the netting to level the scoreline. Just over two minutes later, Korenchuk was able to find the back of the net once again, giving the visitors the lead. This didn’t keep the Pitbulls off the scoresheet, however, as Caly Robertson took the pass off the stick of Max Wigfield to level the game on the power play.

The final period was back and forth for both teams, as Milton Keynes took an early powerplay chance from Sean Norris to regain their advantage; however, it wasn’t long before the home side chased once again, as Jake Bryceland made the stretch pass to Rhys Smetham, who got the third for the Pitbulls. MK reciprocated the goal off Janne Jokinen’s back, leaving the Pitbulls to call a timeout and rethink their strategy for the final few minutes of regulation time. As Nappier headed to the bench in exchange for an extra player, the Pitbulls’ decision paid off as Bricknell fired his second of the night past Jordan Hedley to take the game to overtime.

Overtime was quickly underway as the Lightning faced a penalty kill in the extra five minutes, leaving gameplay to be four-on-three. Despite this, it wasn’t until the opposition returned to full strength that Calum McGill scored the game-winning goal for the home team to skate away with the two points.