Owen Hiltz and the Lakers’s special teams was the story of the first period. Hiltz opened the scoring for the Lakers and had two goals on the man-advantage en route to a hat trick in the first 20 minutes of the game. Turner Evans had a short-handed goal while Thomas Hoggarth had a powerplay goal of his own to finish the period with a 5-3 lead.
The second frame was evenly matched as both teams were able to score twice. Turner Evans scored and Hiltz had his fourth of the night to keep a two-goal lead, making it 7-5 going into the third.
The final frame saw both teams trade goals in the first four scores. Evans got his second of the game while Rob Hellyer tacked on his first. Hoggarth got his second of the night and Austin Hasen scored an empty-net goal with 3:55 left in regulation to seemingly put the dagger in the game.
“Credit to our whole offense,” he said. “It’s been a committee from the beginning of the year to now. Any one of us can have a good night.”
Brooklin was not going down without a fight. With less than three minutes in regulation and in the span of 2:11, Brooklin rallied for four goals to tie the game. Connor Kearnan starting the rally, Sean Westley scored and Tanner Cook capped off a hat trick to tie the game at 11.
Hasen had a chance to score in the dying seconds but Brooklin goaltender Zach Higgins made the stop at the buzzer and got the game to overtime.
With 2:56 remaining in sudden death overtime, the Lakers’s power play capitalized. Hasen made the most of his second chance and scored to negate Brooklin’s comeback and help Peterborough take a commanding 3-0 series lead.
“It’s good to have a little bit of a break until Thursday,” said Hasen. “Everyone expects games to get tighter, rougher so it’s fun but we’ll have to take a couple days off to gather our bodies and get ready for Thursday because they’re coming out even hungrier.”
The Lakers can finish the series and sweep Brooklin with game four at the Peterborough on Thursday at 8 p.m.
