In a game that seen the Grizzlys trail for majority of the night, Brandon Clowes heroics in overtime gave the home team a 4-3 victory on Tuesday night. Although Olds outshot Calgary 43-23, which included a 21 shot second period, they were a little tired playing in their third game in four nights.
The Mustangs opened the scoring (Frank from Norris and Serpico) with a blind shot in the slot which fooled the defence and goaltender Ethan Jemieff. It was the only goal of the period which came at even strength with 3:24 left in the first. With Calgary leading 1-0, they doubled their lead 8:13 into the second period (Kulynych from McMurphy and Labelle). Once again, it was an even strength goal. On a night that seemed like nothing was going to get past Mustangs goalie Jake Tamagi, Blair Oneschuk picked up the puck at the half wall and fired a shot on net. Speedster Chase Paylor drove the net and deflected the puck over Tamagi’s glove to get the Grizzlys on the board. With the Grizzlys sustaining pressure for most of the period, a breakdown in their own zone led to the Mustangs third goal with 3:02 remaining (Thomas from McMurphy). But the Grizzlys were not ready to lie down. Paylor, who was flying around the ice all night, picked up the puck in the neutral zone and beat the defenceman wide to go in on Tamagi one-on-one. Paylor pulled the puck to his backhand and tried sliding it past Tamagi in which he made a nice save on, but Paylor picked up his rebound and slid it past the sprawling goalie for his second on the evening. BJ Duffin recorded the lone assist on the goal.
With the momentum in the Grizzlys corner heading into the third, they needed to find a way to score one as they entered the period down 3-2. That opportunity came with 8:13 remaining in the game on the powerplay. While working the puck around, Mitch Owsley fired a beautiful back door pass to Matthew Marcinew to even the score at three. This was Marcinew’s fourth goal in three games with the Grizzlys. The other assist came from Spencer Dorowicz.
Both teams had the opportunity to end the game in the third period as each team had a 5 on 3 late in the game. Neither team could capitalize which seen the game go into overtime for the third time this season for the Grizz. The Grizzlys still had time remaining in the penalty to start the overtime which they killed off. Following the kill, the Grizz found themselves on the powerplay only 1:38 into overtime, however they boys could not connect on the 4 on 3 opportunity. With both teams back at even strength and Olds keeping the pressure on down low, Clowes found himself wide open at the side of the net with the puck. After three whacks at the puck, he finally fired it into the open net to secure the victory.
The Grizzlys finished the night on the powerplay going 1 for 5 and killed off all seven Mustang opportunities. Chase Paylor earned Player of the Game for Olds with a two goal effort. Ethan Jemieff stopped 20 of 23 to earn the victory.
The win gave the Grizz their fourth victory in a row. With the single point, the Mustangs remain one point ahead of the Grizzlys. The Grizzlys currently sit in seventh place in the South Division but there are six teams log-jammed within 5 points and second place for the Grizz. The Grizzlys hit the road this weekend in Drumheller on Saturday and Calgary Canucks on Sunday. Next home action will be on November 23rd against Brooks and 24th against Drayton Valley. Both game times will be pushed back to 8pm due to the Olds Grizzlys Annual Midget AA Tournament that weekend.