Mustangs edge Raiders in OT
WARRENDALE — Plum saw the comeback coming. It was the ending that caught the Mustangs by surprise.
Seneca Valley freshman goaltender Ethan Helbig was caught a bit off guard as well.
Senior defenseman Cory Sakolsky scored his first varsity goal 1:31 into overtime on a screened shot Tuesday night to give Plum a 6-5 PIHL Class AAA hockey victory over the Raiders at Warrendale BladeRunners.
The loss was the fifth straight for Seneca Valley (1-6). The win was the first of the season for the Mustangs (1-5-1).
“We had a 4-0 lead on State College in our last game and wound up in a 7-7 tie,” Plum coach Stu Rulnick said. “We've lost a few leads. Our defense needs to shore up.”
Plum has allowed 27 goals in its last four games.
“They've been involved in some wild ones,” SV coach Denis Kirstein said. “We felt like we could get back in this thing.”
The Raiders took a 2-0 lead early in the first period on goals by Kevin Rohm at 3:28 and Cody Siegfried at 5:11. But Plum responded with the game's next five scores.
The fifth looked to be the killer. The Raiders were forcing the action in the offensive end when they failed to keep the puck in at the right point.
Andrew Walters scooped up the loose puck, Plum had an odd-man break and Walters deposited the disc behind Helbig for a 5-2 lead with 11:06 to play.
“I looked at the clock and saw there was plenty of time left. And I liked the scoring chances we were getting,” Kirstein said.
Only 19 seconds after Walters' goal, Siegfried beat Plum goalie Taylor Cestra with a high wrist shot to the glove side. Nine seconds after that, Jared Domhoff beat her the same way.
Cestra was the goaltender and tournament MVP for Team Pittsburgh at the women's nationals last year. She has a 6.65 goals-against average for Plum this year.
“Taylor's short and she has to learn to play tall,” Rulnick said. “She plays the butterfly style and goes down on shots.
“We've been working with her on standing tall in there. Once she does that, she'll be an outstanding goalie.”
The Raiders failed to score on a power play with less than three minutes remaining. But Logan Rose poked in a loose puck during a scrum in front of the Plum net with 1:44 left in regulation to force overtime.
Sakolsky foiled the comeback with a wrist shot through traffic from the right point. The puck sailed high into the right corner of the net.
“One thing we haven't been doing is blocking enough shots and it hurt us there,” Kirstein said. “We needed to get in front of that one. I doubt Ethan ever saw it.”
Helbig had appeared in only one other varsity game all season.
“Cory is a four-year player for us and had never scored a goal,” Rulnick said. “We've been talking about shooting pucks through screens. That one worked.”
Plum was 2-for-3 on the power play, Seneca Valley 0-for-3. The Mustangs had a 33-29 edge in shots on goal.
