The North Okanagan Knights saw a three-goal lead evaporate against the Revelstoke Grizzlies on Saturday night, but a hat trick goal from Cole Haberlack secured the victory in overtime.
The Grizzles fired an astounding 64 shots on goal — more than double the Knights’ shot total — but goaltender Sean Kanervisto stood tall through more than 65 minutes of play.
Things started well for the visiting team at the Revelstoke forum, with Kyle Bax and Haberlack scoring two minutes apart in the first period to take a 2-0 lead.
Haberlack’s first tally came on the power play, and in the second period he added another on the man advantage, with assists going to Lee Christensen and Kevin-Thomas Walters.
Around the midway point of the game, Revelstoke began to flip the script.
Bo Cornell scored at 11:50 mark to get the Grizzlies on the scoreboard, his fourth goal of the season assisted by Raymond Speerbrecker and Rider McCallum.
A few minutes later, Finn Withey scored to cut the Knights lead to one.
After the Knights surrendered their fifth penalty of the game, the Grizzlies got the equalizer off the stick of Nathan Cohen-Wallis, whose 14th goal of the season was assisted by Jake Petrie and John Lee.
The shot clock started looking lopsided towards the end of the game, as the Grizzlies out-shot the Knights 25-12 in the second period, and 18-3 in the third.
But the score would remain 3-3 through regulation time, allowing for some OT magic.
Cheetham set up Haberlack 21 seconds into the second overtime period, and the defenceman made no mistake in providing the game winner, his third goal of the game.
The win snaps a three-game losing streak for the Knights, and comes against a Revelstoke team that isn’t used to losing too often.
With just five regulation losses all season the Grizzlies sit comfortably atop the Doug Birks division.
The Knights improved their record to 11-21-6 on the season. They’ll be back home at the Nor-Val Centre on Friday for a game against the Sicamous Eagles, 7:30 p.m.
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