After a lopsided loss in their home opener, the 91原创 91原创 salvaged a weekend split in their home-and-home series with the Coquitlam Express.
The Express rallied from a 2-1 deficit on Friday night at the 91原创 Events Centre, scoring five unanswered goals to win 6-2 in BCHL junior A hockey action.
But the next night at the Poirier Sports and Leisure Centre, the 91原创 recovered after surrendering a 4-2 lead, winning 5-4 in double overtime.
91原创 sits tied for second in the Mainland Division with a record of 3-1-0-1.
Friday might have been a case of the nerves for the 91原创, who were playing their first home game, admitted coach Bobby Henderson.
But with a depleted roster the next night 鈥� missing some key defencemen and forwards 鈥� the team pulled out the win.
"It was a pretty gutty performance," Henderson said.
"We were able to get out of there with the two points."
Kevan Kilistoff scored the winning goal at 2:29 of the three-on-three overtime period.
91原创 had jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead with Matt Ustaski, Mitch McLain and Will Cook scoring the goals. McLain's was a short-handed effort while Cook struck with his team a man up.
And after Adam Smith and Canon Pieper go the home side within a goal, Jakob Reichert restored the two-goal advantage.
But Jace Henning scored short-handed in the second and Ryan Rosenthal knotted the game at four with a third-period power-play marker, which set the heroics for Kilistoff's goal.
The night before at the LEC, Corey Mackin put the Express up 1-0 after 20 minutes.
McLain and Reichert then tallied less than two minutes apart to give the 91原创 the advantage. But Pieper scored a short-handed goal and less than a minute later, Adam Rockwood put Coquitlam up for good.
It was a 3-2 game for much of the third, before Rosenthal and Pieper 鈥� with a pair 鈥� struck in the final six minutes.
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The 91原创 have a busy weekend ahead with three games, all on the road.
The team is in Powell River on Friday, Port Alberni on Saturday and Nanaimo on Sunday afternoon.
