Tuesday, February 2, 2021

A Monumental Comeback for SLP Orioles

 Just when you thought the St. Louis Park Orioles were about to get blown out, they would come back with five unanswered goals, including the game winner from Sam Berry with :21.5 left in overtime to beat the Chaska Hawks 6-5 Tuesday night at The Rec Center.  

It looked like the first period would be scoreless but the Hawks took the early lead on a line drive goal from Sully Scholle with :00.3 left in the period.  Early in the period, Chaska had a five on three advantage for :51 but the St. Louis Park penalty killing unit kept a purple, gold and white jersey from putting the puck into the net.  

Chaska would increase the margin to four in the second period with three consecutive goals.  Bennett Jax would jack one into the net, followed by Sam Rinzel's power play goal from the left slot.  The lead would increase to four on an unassisted goal by Jack Severson.  But there would no shutout for the Hawks when Lucas Hand made a nifty pass to Jack Wandmacher and he would go top shelf to enter the Oriole history books with his 100th career point.  Scholle would wrap the second half scoring with :49 left in the period while Rinzel was serving a holding penalty.  He drove down the ice like the team bus heading down Highway 100, stickhandled the puck through the center slot and put it past St. Louis Park goalie Josh Middleton to give Chaska a 5-1 lead.  

The best was yet to come for the small throng of Oriole fans in the third period when St. Louis Park would even the score with four goals.  First, McCabe Dvorak would score a rebound goal to cut the lead to three.  Then came Drew Boyum, who lined a shot from the left slot into the net.  Down 5-3, Oriole head coach Andy Sackrison pulled Middleton with 1:24 to go for a sixth attacker and it paid dividends for St. Louis Park.  Lucas hand scored on a rebound to cut the lead to one and Dvorak would tie the game with :31 remaining to send the game into overtime.  

Could the Orioles continue their goal run in overtime?  The answer would be yes as Berry rebounded Dvorak's shot and sent it across the goal line to complete an improbable comeback win.  

The Orioles out shot the Hawks 39-24.  

St. Louis Park improved their record to 5-1-1 and will head down Highway 5 to the Victoria Recreation Center to take on the Chanhassen Storm Saturday, February 6 at 3 PM.  Chaska fell to 4-3 and returns to The Rec Center on the 6th for a 2:30 game with the Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights.  

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