The Hawks swarm Landon Pappas after the SJHL rookie scored the overtime winner in Melfort Friday. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW Staff)

By Clark Stork

Overtime hero

Hawks beat Melfort again in overtime

Dec 16, 2023 | 11:28 AM

For the second time this Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) season the Hawks have beaten Melfort in overtime including Friday’s 5-4 thriller at the Northern Lights Palace.

The third meeting of the year between the SJHL rivals started sloppy in Melfort with no goals in the opening period, the teams traded goals in the second frame for a 1-1 tie, but the floodgates opened in the third period with each team scoring three times producing several lead changes. In overtime rookie defenseman Landon Pappas beat Kristian Coombs for his fifth SJHL goal and first extra time winner. The Airdrie, Alta. product said the game wasn’t overly exciting to start, but the team will take the result.

“Yeah, for sure it was a tough game,” he said after. “Overall, we will take it in the end for sure.”

After the goalless first period, Hawks’ forward Eric Hoiness opened the scoring with his eighth goal of his SJHL career, but the Mustangs tied the game three minutes later.

In the third Melfort took their first lead, Nipawin’s hometown hero Finley Radloff tied the game at 2-2, the Mustangs took another lead, but Radloff tied it again with his team leading13th goal of the season. The Hawks restored their lead off the stick of Artem Hrabovetskyi who redirected his 10th of the year past Coombs, but with the Melfort goalie on the bench for the extra attacker, Chase Friedt-Mohr slapped the tying goal past Damon Cunningham to force overtime before Pappas called game with two minutes to play.

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“Bernsy [Alex Bernauer] got the puck on the wall, thought I would do a little switch with him, and I got it and had so much ice,” Pappas explained after the game. “I seen Mac [Maguire Ratzlaff] driving backdoor, but the guy was on him, so I tried to do a little fake about half a foot, and just flicked it in, that was good.”

The victory was also Nipawin’s third straight over Melfort this season, the win snapped the Hawks two-game slide and ended the Mustangs six game winning streak. The teams will meet again Saturday in Nipawin to close the 2023 portion of the SJHL schedule. Pappas said a more complete game will go further in the rematch at the ‘Cage.’

“We need to take it to them harder, right off the top of the game. Play 60 minutes for sure,” he said.

Faceoff is 7 p.m. at the Centennial Arena.

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clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @ClarkStork