Site Editor posted on February 08, 2010 22:55
Lenape upset Eastern 11-10 as they won the shootout 3-1, in a wild and crazy game at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Monday night in a first round game in the SJHSIHL double elimination Tournament. In a game where the teams combined for 20 goals and 97 shots in regulation and the two five minute overtimes, we had to go to a shootout to decide a winner, but not without some controversy. More on that later.
Offensively for Lenape, Jacob Mitchell led Lenape with four goals and Scott Kreifels added two goals and four assists. For Eastern Joshua Weinberg and Billy Bascou each had a hat trick. Despite allowing 10 goals, Lenape goalie Jackson Burns faced 62 shots and was especially strong in both overtime periods as Eastern generated 16 shots to just 4 for Lenape. Lenape jumped out to a 2-0 lead with the game barely one minute old as Kreifels and Mitchell got things going. Later in the period Eastern capitalized on the power play as Bascou got his first, but a turnover by the defense allowed Kyle Young to score on a breakaway and the lead was 3-1 heading into the second period.
Mitchell scored early again on a breakaway and Lenape led 4-1, but the Vikings once again on the power play cut the lead to 4-2 as a one-timer by Sam Seigledorf found the net. Then with a two-man advantage Eastern scored there third power play goal as Weinberg got his first to make it 4-3. Mitchell deflected a shot from the point by Charlie Magill and the lead was back at two at 5-3. Eastern tied the game scoring two goals in forty seconds, one by Bascou and the other by Weinberg. Bascou gave the Vikings there first lead at 6-5 as he scored shorthanded with under three minutes left in the period. Kyle Young got the equalizer late and we headed into the third period knotted at 6-6.
We went on a scoring drought as neither teams scored in the first four minutes, but then they had to set some sort of playoff record as three goals were scored in fourteen seconds, first Kreifels put Lenape ahead 7-6, then Weinberg and Bascou scored seconds later and the Vikings re-took the lead at 8-7. With a chance to increase the lead with another power play, Mitchell scored short-handed to tie the game at 8-8. Still on the power play, Weinberg scored for a 9-8 lead. But Jake Spear with a screen set-up in front, found the top corner and once again we were tied at 9-9. Alec Goldstein joined the scoring frenzy as he gave Eastern a 10-9 lead with seven minutes left. Having established that no lead was safe, Lenape took less than two minutes as Kyle Young scored his second of the game and we were tied at 10-10. Surprisingly no more goals were scored until the shootout. Both teams went scoreless for almost 16 minutes. Now the controversy, at the end of the second overtime each team had a man in the box with time left to serve, heading into the shootout. With no league rule addressing this, we turned to the league president via a conference call and his call was with the clock expired, both players should be eligible.
The Eastern coach wanted the rule checked in the rule book. USA hockey does not address shoot-outs because they continue with the overtime periods. After seemingly forever (15 minutes, probably), it was decided that both players could participate in the shootout, but only after every player on the bench had shot. As it turns out, the protest was a moot point, as neither player participated. Seigeldorf scored for Eastern after Young had failed on his attempt. Lenape then scored 3 straight as Mitchell, Kreifels and the clincher by Scott Siracusano and Lenape celebrated there exciting win.
Written by Mike Costantino
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