The Lockport Express continued their new winning ways, taking a close game, 4-3, against the College Station Spirit in Day Two action of the NA3HL Showcase in Blaine, Minnesota. The Express have now won 3 out of their last 4 games after a lengthy winless streak.
College Station’s Jordan Wright opened the scoring with a power play goal at 5:52 of the first period. Trevor Wolf and Castor Mattos provided the assists. In a game full of power play goals, College Station was nabbed 3 times in the opening frame, while Lockport had one.
Andrew Logar tied the game at 12:59 of the second to tie the game 1-1 on the power play. Gibson Stuart and Blake Bennett joined him on the scoresheet with the assists. College Station answered the bell with their second of the game at 16:27. Castor Mattos was credited with the goal while Matt Hehr added the assist. There were another six trips to the penalty box, one of those by Lockport.
Lockport once again tied the game with a power play mark by Gibson Stuart at 8:46 of the third. He was assisted by Nick Grupp. They took the lead for the first time on a power play shot by Aaron Shahin at 11:38. Andrew Logar assisted on the power play goal. College Station was able to tie the game once again when RC Randall’s shot found the back of the net. The power play goal, at 14:14, was assisted by Preston Palamara.
Blake Bennett ended any thought of overtime when he scored the winning goal with only .5 seconds left in regulation. Yet another power play goal, Andrew Logar was credited with the assist. There were another 10 penalties during the third period, three of them served by Lockport.
Logar led the team with 3 points on the day. Bennett and Stuart each tallied 2 points. Adam Partridge got his second win in as many days between the pipes. Lockport outshot College Station 45-23.
According to head coach, Frank Vecchio, “It was not our best played game, but we gutted it out and found a way to win.” Blake Bennett added, "It was a really good game. Partridge made a huge save and that gave us the momentum to score."
The Express have one more game during Showcase weekend tomorrow morning. They will face off against the Helena Bighorns at 9:40am Central Time (10:40 Eastern Time).
In other Northeast Division action:
Missoula Junior Bruins 6, Skylands Kings 4
Binghamton Junior Senators 2, Yellowstone Quake 0
Great Falls Americans 7, Jersey Shore Wildcats 3
Gillette Wild 8, Syracuse Stampede 3
The Roc City game was just underway as we went to publish this story. At that time, they were leading 1-0 over the Bozeman Icedogs halfway through the first period.
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