AUBURN — JC Humphreys ended a wild game between the Twin City Thunder and the Northern Cyclones on Friday afternoon.
The Thunder forward, playing in his fifth game with the team, finished off a feed from Jack MacDonald on a 2-on-1 in overtime to give Twin City a 5-4 victory in a USPHL NCDC New England Division game at Norway Savings Bank Arena.
Humphreys beat Cyclones goalie Jeffrey Fillion above the glove hand 97 seconds into the extra frame.
“Cullen (McCormick) won a battle (for the puck) to me and I had a 2-on-1,” Humphreys said. “I was pretty tired, dragged it and shot it.”
McCormick started the play after the Thunder (6-10-2, 14 points) spent the first minute of the overtime session in their defensive zone. The Cyclones (9-11-4, 22 points) had a golden chance early to get the puck past Thunder goalie Ludwig Svensson (34 saves).
“There was a lot of (defensive) zone time. I was getting nervous because they had an opportunity at the beginning,” Thunder coach Dan Hodge said. “Svensson made a big save on it. We got the 2-on-1 and what a shot.”
Both teams had their moments in the third period. The Thunder entered the final 20 minutes of regulation with a 2-1 lead.
MacDonald added a bit of insurance for the Thunder when he scored a power-play goal a little past the seven-minute mark of the third period, with Patrick Last and McCormick providing the assists.
The Thunder were 1 for 5 on the man advantage. The Cyclones were 0 for 2.
The Cyclones stormed back with two goals in 66 seconds. Anthony Dalessio picked up the puck in the slot and roofed it through traffic to get the Cyclones within a goal 13:18 into the third. On the next shift, Mike Markowski tied the game 3-3 at the 14:24 mark.
The Cyclones took the lead as Dalessio notched his second goal when he potted home the puck in a scramble in front of the goal at the 15:28 mark.
“We got loose in our (defensive) zone, and we cost ourselves in goals,” Hodge said. “We are down now, it was 3-1, now it’s 4-3. I give the team credit, we didn’t pack it in. We came back, tied it and obviously won it in overtime.”
Last answered 32 seconds later when he skated into the offensive zone and unleashed a wrist shot in the right circle past Fillion (52 saves), tying the game at 4-4.
“It was a great play, a quick release off his stick far-side,” Hodge said. “Give him credit, he seems to save his big goals for the Cyclones.”
The Thunder had an early shot advantage in the first nine minutes of the game, but the Cyclones got on the board first. Thierry Lizotte picked up a long rebound off a teammate’s shot that rang the crossbar and fired the puck into a half-open net 9:19 into the first period.
After Lizotte’s tally, the Cyclones flipped the ice toward the Thunder’s end, but couldn’t get the puck past Svensson.
Cole Roenick, the nephew of former NHL star Jeremy Roenick, tied the game late in the opening period when Last’s shot hit Fillion and rolled into the crease, where Roenick barely got the puck over the goal line for the tally.
Roenick’s line was the Thunder’s fourth line for the game.
“We know our role as a fourth line and we know what we got to do,” Roenick said. “Our coach tells us there’s no real fourth line or first line. We just all have to come together as a team.”
Defenseman Andrew Toomey also had an assist on the goal.
Fillion made an outstanding save in the final minute of the first to keep the game 1-1 when he stopped the puck by going for a glove save, but the puck got caught between his jersey and underneath the glove where he inserts his hand.
“Give the Fillion kid credit, he played really well,” Hodge said.
It was a spirited back-and-forth second period where a brawl almost broke out midway through, but the referees got control of the situation before things got out of hand. Last and the Cyclones’ Kyle Caron each got a double-minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.
Roenick buried his second goal of the game when linemate Edvin Robertsson set him up in the high slot for a one-timer with under three minutes remaining in the middle frame for a 2-1 lead.
“That was all (Robertsson),” Roenick said. “He set me up beautifully and all I had to do was put it home.”
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