The Hamilton Kilty B’s defeated the Niagara Falls Canucks 3-2 in a shootout on Thursday night at Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena.
The B’s squandered a two-goal lead late in the third period but recovered well in overtime.
Hamilton took a 1-0 lead mid-way through the first, on a goal by Dawson McKinney. The 6-foot, 185-pound McKinney, swatted in a rebound past the panicked Canucks goaltender.
McKinney scored again to start the second period, his sixteenth of the season on a cross-crease pass from Brodie McIntyre.
Things got rough just after that when Benjamin Kay of the Canucks, laid out a Kilty B’s player with a hit-from-behind. Kay got two minutes and a game misconduct for the illegal check, but Hamilton was unable to capitalize.
Later in the frame, Connor Haynes of the Kilty B’s, also got a game misconduct for a hit to the head on a crouched Canucks player along the boards.
Hamilton was able to kill off the entire five-minute power-play and take a 2-0 lead into the third period.
With just over three minutes to go in the game, Niagara Falls’ Sam Ostafin scored on a nice tip to cut the lead in half. Then, just a minute later, Kyle Caron tied the game at two when he buried a rebound past a sprawling David Egorov.
Egorov overall was very solid as usual for Hamilton, making 42 saves on the 44 shots he faced.
In overtime, the Canucks took a too-many-men penalty but killed it off, as the game went over six minutes without a whistle.
In the shootout, Egorov saved all three attempts by the Canucks on route to the victory. Nathan Phillips and none other than Dawson McKinney, both scored on their shootout attempts to secure the win.
The Kilty B’s play again on Sat, Dec. 7 when they travel to Caledonia to take on the Pro-Fit Corvairs at 7:30 p.m.
-Jarrett Matthews
