The Nipawin Hawks celebrate Alex Johnson's overtime winner in Melville on Friday. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW staff)

By Clark Stork

Working Overtime

Hawks win in chaotic overtime in Melville

Nov 27, 2021 | 2:07 AM

The Nipawin Hawks clawed back from behind Friday to beat the Melville Millionaires 4-3 in overtime.

Looking to return to the win column after a 5-1 loss in Flin Flon Tuesday and collect some retribution for a loss in Melville exactly one month prior the Hawks didn’t start well but found their game as the night moved along.

The Millionaires opened the scoring, Noah Wills gave the home side a 1-0 lead on a Melville powerplay. Nipawin would draw even not even two minutes later; Jake Smith notched his third goal of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) season. Melville restored their lead before the first period was out, Nicolas Samson rifled another powerplay goal past Chase Hamm giving the Millionaires a 2-1 lead.

The Hawks tied the contest again in the second period, Christian Albertson redirected his team leading seventh goal of the season past Jared Thompson knotting the game at 2-2.

Melville didn’t leave the game deadlocked long, just over two minutes later Jonathan Krahn put the Millionaires up again.

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Nipawin didn’t falter going into the third period trailing by one, eventually the team’s effort paid off, Zander Stewart scored his first career SJHL goal tying the game at 3-3 and forcing overtime.

“We just needed to stick to our plan, we need to play our game,” Stewart said after the game. “We weren’t playing our game for the first two periods, and we just got back to it in the third and I thought we had a good third.”

Both clubs had several chances to win the game in overtime, following some chaotic moments including a hit goalpost in the Hawks end, Alex Johnson jumped on a Melville turnover in front of Thompson and scored securing the win with his third goal of the year. Stewart said the team was excited with the finish.

“We battled back hard there after a slow start, we definitely battled back and scored some big goals,” he said.

The win moves the Hawks to one game below .500 with 10 wins and 11 losses in regulation. The club is tied with Yorkton who they will meet on Saturday for the first time this season. Stewart said the club will need to be ready from the first faceoff if they expect the same result.

“We just need to build off this game and keep going. If we play like we did in the third I think it will work out for us,” he said.

Faceoff is set for 7:30 p.m. The pregame show on Saskatchewan’s New Beach Radio will begin at 7:15 p.m.

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clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @ClarkStork