BARRHEAD - The Barrhead Bombers gave themselves and their fans an early Christmas gift, dramatically defeating the Vegreville Vipers with a 5-4 Dec. 15 home win.
The win, on Teddy Bear Toss Night and the final game before the Christmas break, puts the Bombers' record 10 wins, 15 losses and one overtime loss good enough for third place in the Canadian American Junior Hockey League (CAJHL). The win also ended a three-game losing streak.
Although the Bombers played a solid first period and won the time of possession in the offensive zone and shots on goal battle 20-15, they found themselves trailing 2-0, with the last goal coming with only one second left on the clock.
The Bombers got on the scoreboard just past the halfway mark of the second period on a goal by Jordan Martens, assisted by Austin Galway Nolin, littering the ice with stuffies.
The Bombers would tie the game less than a minute later on a goal by Michael Canning, assisted by Martens and Lane Nolin.
Vegreville regained the lead on a short-handed marker three minutes later.
Early in the third period, the Vipers would extend their lead when Carson Pewarchuk skated across the top of the face-off circle and took a through a body that eluded Barrhead goaltender John Zeisse going over his left shoulder just under the crossbar.
The Bombers into Vegreville's lead, scoring at just about the 11-minute mark on a power-play goal by Cade Bohn assisted by Canning and Martens.
Canning would tie the game 4-all about a minute and a half later, with assists going to Nolin and Marco Russo.
Barrhead would take the lead on a short-handed goal by Russo with just 3:17 left in the period.
After the game, head coach Mario Haase admitted it wasn't their "prettiest" win.
"That is not how you would draw it up, but sometimes it is about timely goals and showing up when it counts the most," he said. "In a game like this, where both teams are playing well and could come out on top, it comes down, especially in the last 10 minutes, to who wants it more. We talked about that in the second intermission, and I reiterated it during [the time out after Vegreville's fourth goal], and I thought we continued to get better as the third period went on."
Haase added that the Bombers will take two weeks of much-welcomed rest, saying that Barrhead is tied for first in the number of games played before hitting the ice again in the New Year.
