River Kings win OT thriller

Cornwall Ontario – With the victory, Cornwall improved to 5-7-2 on home ice this season. The hard-hitting contest was played in front of a gathering of 702 fans.

After Charles Lavigne made a huge save in the 3-on-3 extra session, Fazekas took off with the rebound and buried his first goal of the season for the game winner.

With Cornwall trailing 5-4 in the third, Francois Ouimet scored his second of the contest with 8:42 to play to level the score.

David Croteau opened the scoring for Cornwall with a powerplay goal 1:34 into the contest.

Sixteen seconds after Nicolas Blanchard leveled the score for St-Georges at 4:29, Maxime Vachon scored his first goal for the River Kings when he cashed in on a perfect feed from Antony Courcelles. The goal chased Hubert Morin from the St-Georges crease.

Simon Demers’ one-timer beat Pete Karvouniaris, who started the game in goal for Cornwall, at 9:53 to once again tie the game before David Poulin beat Karvouniaris with a squeaker from the point at 14:54.

Cornwall tied it up 14 seconds later when St-Georges defenceman Pierre-Luc Bouchard scored on his own net when attempting a pass. Sy Nutkevitch was credited with the goal.

Moments later, leading scorer Ouimet gave Cornwall a 4-3 lead when he beat Pier-Olivier Pelletier between the legs at 16:06. Ouimet had another opportunity to beat Pelletier, but was denied on a penalty shot with 3:11 to play in the wild first period.

Blanchard’s second of the game 2:25 into the second period pulled Karvouniaris in favour of Lavigne. St-Georges capitalized on a River Kings turnover to take a 5-4 lead on a goal by Kevin Cloutier with 4:39 to play in the middle frame.

Vachon, Guillaume Veilleux and Jonathan Parisien made their River Kings debuts on Friday night at Laval. Cory Pecker made his debut on Friday night at Laval. Pecker, who didn’t play on Saturday, will be eased into the River Kings lineup.

Cornwall’s Colin Rice challenged Yannick Dallaire and the River Kings Curtis Tidball took on Kevin Cormier in the first. Local defenceman Ryan Sullivan had a heated battle with Bouchard in the second.

Cornwall outshot St-Georges 3-1 in overtime and 32-28 overall. Nutkevitch (first), Fazekas (second) and Cloutier were the announced stars.

Photo by Ice Level Photography.