Mr. Ice Hockey posted on March 11, 2019 23:23
Trailing 4-0 midway through the second period, things did not look good for Eastern, but to their credit they kept firing the puck, 42 shots in all and would chip away at the lead and with less than one minute left in overtime Kristopher Zapata would deposit the game winner past Matt Lynch and the Vikings would escape with a 5-4 win in the opening round of the NJ/DE Flyers Cup. Jordan Stein led the Vikings with two goals. Township would build their lead initially taking advantage of the power play, as five minutes into the game Anthony Lonasco working behind the net, found CJ Castorina out front and his quick shot found the net and a 1-0 lead for Township.
Just a few minutes later Township took advantage of the power play once again as Matt Kennedy saw his shot from the point go through a maze of players and into the net and a 2-0 lead. Early in the second period Andrew Matlack beat the Eastern defense to a loose puck and scored on a breakaway and Township seemingly had a comfortable 3-0 lead. When Joe Mosco converted a nice breakout pass off the boards from Nick Mouradjian into a goal, with the lead 4-0, things seemed safe for Township. But moments later Easter would get on the board as Stein would score down low to cut the deficit to 4-1.
Conor Riley would get the Vikings to within 4-2 at the six minute mark and the Vikings had cut the lead in half as we headed into the third period. Stein got them within 4-3 and Luke Riley would get the equalizer with five minutes left in the period. Eastern would have several chances but Lynch kept them off the board. As we headed into overtime, both teams had scoring chances but Zapata was the only one who finished and the Vikings would advance in the tournament.
Written by Mike Costantino