Proctor Wins Overtime Thriller To Advance In Section 5A Playoffs

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Feb 23, 2012

Kerry Rodd-NSO

Heading into overtime of their Section 5A quarterfinal game the Proctor Rails were looking for a hockey miracle. The Rails had given up two third period goals to Sauk Rapids-Rice which allowed the game to go to the extra session, and in the process saw their momentum slip away. The Rails dug an even bigger hole when they took a penalty, but relief came in the form of a Jeremy Lopez shorthanded goal that pushes Proctor into the semi-finals with a 6-5 victory.

Cody Mercier gave Proctor early life with a goal just 28 seconds into the first period on an assist from Ian Ecklund and the Rails were up 1-0. SR-R tied the game at 1-1 on a goal from James Geisler at 1:47, but Proctor followed with back-to-back goals from Shane Gould at 9:04 and Jesse Scanlon at 13:47. Gould’s goal was assisted by Jimmy Merling and Ecklund and Scanlon’s power play goal was assisted by Mercier giving Proctor a 3-1 edge after two periods.

Both teams scored twice in the second period, with SR-R scoring at 8:15 on a power play to cut the lead to 3-2, but Proctor then added another set of goals back-to-back to go up 5-2. The first of the second period goals by Proctor was scored by Jake Lewis on the power play at 8:35 with Ecklund and Lopez assisting and the second was scored by Scanlon at 15:03 from Kyle Gould and Lopez. SR-R gave themselves hope for the third period when they scored a late goal in the second period with just 53 seconds remaining to close to within 5-3 entering the final period.

The third period saw SRR pull to within 5-4 on a power play goal at 7:14 from Luke Richardson and they finally pulled even when Geisler scored his second of the game at 12:03. That goal eventually held up enough to send the game to the extra session.

Proctor seemed in a ton of trouble entering the overtime because they had given up the final goal of the second period as well as the two third period goals and all the momentum appeared to be in the SRR favor. It got even bleaker for Proctor when they took a 5 minute major penalty at 2:23 into the overtime and were now facing a shorthanded situation.

That all changed when Lopez managed to get free to score the game winner 6:02 into overtime, setting off a wild celebration as the Rails advance to the sectional semi-finals. While the Rails found just enough offense they also had some strong goaltending from Ryan McCarthy who made 32 saves in the game and Erik Johnson recorded 21 saves for SR-R.

The #5 seeded Rails will make the short trip to Hermantown to take on the #1 seed Hawks at 7:00pm Saturday in the Section 5A semi-final round.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com