Steelheads beat Rangers with OT winner

Mississauga grabs win from Kitchener and snaps three-game losing streak

Steelheads centre Michael McLeod is draft eligible this year with whispers that he could go in the top 15 of next June's NHL draft. Photo courtesy of Mississauga Steelheads

Everett Clark had two goals and Alexander Nylander scored in overtime to complete the comeback as the Mississauga Steelheads snapped a three-game losing streak and beat the Kitchener Rangers 3-2 in OHL action Sunday afternoon.

Nylander’s overtime winner came 58 seconds after the extra period began off a beautiful pass from Clark to complete the Steelheads come-from-behind victory as they trailed 2-0 until 12 minutes into the third period.

Clark brought the Steelheads (3-3-0-1) within one at 12:01 of the third with a shorthanded goal from a cross-ice feed from Nathan Bastian.

Just over three minutes later, Clark would tie the game on the power play with his second of the night, bringing the puck into the zone himself and burying one behind Rangers goaltender Dawson Carty to force overtime.

“Our power play’s been slow so it was good to get thatone and get back on track,” said Clark after the game.

The Rangers (2-1-2-0) hit the board fast and early with left-winger Darby Llewellyn’s second goal of the season at 1:43 of the first off of a scramble in front of the Steelheads net.

Both teams would exchange penalties as well as crossbars but goaltenders for both sides would close the door for the remainder of the first. Steelhead’s Jack Flinn who has started all seven games made 12 saves in the first including one off of his left pad on Rangers Ryan MacInnis in the last minute.

The second period had the Rangers pressuring the Steelheads who had a close call when the puck snuck past Flinn but defencemen Stephen Gibson would bail him out by getting his stick on the puck just before it crossed the line.

Llewellyn’s second goal at 9:45 of the second period came seconds after Steelhead’s Flinn stopped a David Miller breakaway. Mississauga never recovered the puck in the zone and Llewellyn buried the puck with a shot from the right side.

The Steelheads, who had 17 goals through their first three games, struggled the past three with only three goals seemed to have found their scoring touch again today.

“We have to shoot the puck more,” said coach James Boyd after the game. “We are guilty of trying to do too much at times and sometimes putting it on net sounds cliché but it’s the best play.”

Flinn, acquired from the Owen Sound Attack in September, had posted a 1.82 GAA and .938 save percentage with one shutout going into Sunday’s game. He finished this win with 24 saves.

“I don’t really look at stats and really think about any of that stuff,” said Flinn. “I just try to focus on one game at a time, one period at a time and let it take itself from there”

Rangers’ Jake Henderson thought he had put the nail in the coffin for the Steelheads at 9:37 of the third as he snuck past the defence and shot it right over Flinn’s left shoulder, but the play would be deemed offside.

The Steelheads look to put together another win Monday when they face the North Bay Battalion to kick-off a four-game road trip.

Rangers try for their first home will on Thanksgiving afternoon, against Sudbury.

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By: Jessica Patton
Posted: Oct 11 2015 6:38 pm
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Filed under: Hockey Sports
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