Clutch Sunday: Overtime, shootouts abound at USPHL Florida Showcas

 

Clutch Sunday: Overtime, shootouts abound at USPHL Florida Showcase 

By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com, 12/16/18, 10:15PM EST

Boy, will the teams at the USPHL Florida Showcase sleep tonight.

Sunday was a busy day at the Florida Hospital Center Ice facility in Wesley Chapel, with the first games beginning at 8 a.m. and the last ending at almost 10 p.m.

In between those hours were thriller upon thriller at both the USPHL Premier and Elite levels.

Premier

Richmond Generals 2, Hampton Roads Whalers 1 (SO)

The final game of Sunday ended up being one of the day’s most dramatic, fittingly enough.

Jared Sanchez scored for the Whalers, followed 4:33 later by Luca De Dona for Richmond, both in the first half.

The Whalers played suffocating defense for the second half, allowing just five shots, while putting 15 of their own up against Richmond goalie Aidan Richardson.

Richardson and the Whalers’ Alec Lindberg stopped two and three shots, respectively, in the 5-minute 3v3 overtime.

Nathan Sargent scored the first goal of the shootout for Richmond, and Brandon Osmundson forced the sudden death portion for Hampton Roads.

Stefan Owens scored in the sixth round of the shootout for Richmond, and Richardson then stopped Sanchez to give Richmond the crucial Southeast Division win.

That was Hampton Roads’ first shootout (or overtime) loss for the season and just their second total “L” for the year.

Tampa Bay Juniors 4, Atlanta 3 (OT)
Tampa’s Tyler Schaeffer scored his first goal of the game early in the second half, before Atlanta held a 3-2 lead entering the final five minutes. He tied the game at the 20:34 mark of the second half and the Juniors forced overtime. Saxon Greene picked off a clearing attempt and skated in for the overtime game-winner. That gave Tampa its first win of the showcase that it was hosting.

Florida Eels 2, Richmond Generals 1 (OT)
Jacob Handfast picked a Generals defenseman’s pocket and went in all alone for the GWG at the 3:12 mark of the extra session. Patrick Pratapas had started the scoring in the first, and Eels defenseman Lukas Aaw answered at almost the same point of the second period (17:37), helping to set up Handfast’s heroics.

Elite Division
Florida Jr. Blades 3, Potomac Patriots 2 (SO)
Potomac held the trump card entering the halftime, up 2-0. Within the last 10 minutes of regulation, the Blades’ Erik Peavey and T.J. Gerard evened the game to send it to OT.
The teams put two shots apiece on goal in the 5-minute overtime session, and the shootout went to the sudden death phase, where E.J. Halleck scored the shootout winner.

Richmond Generals 2, Hampton Roads Whalers 1 (SO)
The Generals got a big upset win against their Southeast Division rival in the Sunday evening game. Hampton Roads’ Shane Ziegler opened the scoring, but Richmond’s Caden Buttke answered 16 seconds later. The teams were deadlocked for the rest of regulation and the overtime, in which Richmond held a 4-2 shot advantage.
Cody Wilson scored for the Whalers’ in the shootout, but both Matt Dougherty and Brendan Meyer popped the pucks in for the Generals for the W in the standings.

Other tight games
Premier: Charlotte Rush 6, Florida Eels 4
What started as a 1-1 game at the half blew the scorekeeper’s mind in the second half, with eight total goals — three coming in the final minute of the contest.

Nikita Pinimyasov’s bullet from the point put the Eels up 4-3 and had a late power play to try to build on their lead, but nothing could come of it.

Billy Berry scored the game-tying goal with 58 seconds remaining. Twenty-four seconds later, Matthew Jahn sent a laser in off the boards in what wound up as the game-winning goal, and Jestin Somero rolled in the empty-net goal in what is essentially an Instant Classic for the USPHL Premier Division.

Elite: Hampton Roads Whalers 3, Islanders Hockey Club 2
The Islanders held a 2-1 lead heading into the second half, but the Whalers could not be kept down. Ruslan Abyanov and D.J. Randle scored unanswered second half goals for the 3-2 win.

Elite: Tampa Bay Juniors 2, Atlanta Jr. Kings 1
Tampa’s Zachary Parker (in the first) and Kevin Holman (second half) scored the Juniors’ goals, but just 34 seconds after Holman’s goal, Atlanta’s Trenton Bailey got on the board. The Tampa defense went to work and allowed just eight total shots in the second half to hold on for the win.