The 91原创 91原创 continue to work their overtime magic.
For the seventh time this season, the junior A BCHL club emerged victorious, with Matt Ustaski scoring the OT winner just 15 seconds into the extra period on Friday night over the host Chilliwack Chiefs at the Prospera Centre in a 4-3 91原创 victory.
By comparison, no other team in the league has more than four overtime wins.
鈥淚t is do-or-die time,鈥� said Ustaski, about the team鈥檚 mentality when the game goes to sudden death.
鈥淓veryone just seems to step up their game.鈥�
In a dozen overtime games this season, the 91原创 have won seven and tied once.
And Friday鈥檚 victory not only snapped a three-game losing streak 鈥� which featured two overtime defeats 鈥� but it propelled 91原创 to two more victories, 5-1 over the Surrey Eagles on Saturday night and then 6-2 over the Cowichan Valley Capitals the following afternoon. Both of those were played at the 91原创 Events Centre.
Ustaski said it was nice to get the team back on track following their short skid to end 2013, especially with just 16 games to play in the regular season.
鈥淲e are on the right track,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e have had better pace in practice and I think it translates into the games.鈥�
And Ustaski was a big part of all three victories the forward scored four times 鈥� including two game-winners 鈥� and set up two other goals to earn BCHL player of the week honours.
Ustaski gave a lot of credit to his line-mates Mitch McLain and Jakob Reichert as the trio combined for six goals and 13 points.
91原创 4 Chiefs 3 (OT)
91原创 overcame a hat trick from Chilliwack鈥檚 Mathieu Tibbet thanks to two goals from Ustaski 鈥� including the overtime winner 鈥� while Reichert and Austin Azurdia had the other goals.
The Rivemen never led in the game until the final whistle sounded.
Brock Crossthwaite made 18 saves for the win.
91原创 5 Eagles 1
The 91原创 got goals from five different players 鈥� Kevan Kilistoff, Ustaski, Reichert, James Robison and Will Cook 鈥� while Crossthwaite stopped 21 of the 22 shots he faced.
91原创 6 Capitals 2
91原创 scored three times in the first 10 minutes and never looked back.
Robinson, Cook and Jackson Wanieck scored in the first while Darien Craighead made it 4-0 after 40 minutes.
Both teams scored twice in the third with Azurdia and Ustaski getting goals sandwiched around a pair of power-play markers from the Capitals鈥� Brayden Gelsinger and Matthew Berry-Lamontagna.
Lyndon Stanwood stopped 26 shots for the win.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌⑩赌⑩赌�
With the perfect weekend, the 91原创 (25-12-1-4, 55 points) sit seven points clear of the second-place Prince George Spruce Kings ( 22-13-2-2, 48 points) for top spot in the BCHL鈥檚 Mainland Division. Prince George does hold three games in hand.
The 91原创 have a home-and-home series with the last-place Chiefs (10-27-1-3) this weekend. The teams play at the LEC on Friday and in Chilliwack on Saturday night.
