Jersey Shore claims NA3EHL crown

LEWISTON – The inaugural season for the NA3EHL will be remembered for many things, but the performance the Jersey Shore Wildcats displayed over the course of the season will be forever remembered.

They capped it off with a championship as Adam Skutchan scored the winning goal in double overtime to claim the NA3EHL crown with 3-2 victory over of the New Hampshire Fighting Spirit Sunday afternoon at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

Down by two goals, the Wildcats needed to put together a strong third period to even send it to overtime.

It was not pretty for the Wildcats through the first two periods of the game as the Fighting Spirit dominated the zone, but they pulled it together and scored twice in the third period to send the game into an extra session.

After a scoreless five-minute overtime period with both teams skating four-on-four, the teams moved to three-on-three for the next five-minute overtime where Jersey Shore was able to take advantage.

With 2:41 remaining in the second overtime, Skutchan, who rang a shot off the post in the first OT period, got another opportunity to win the championship for his team on a rebound.

This time he delivered, stuffing the puck past Claes Endre to take the win in the series and the NA3EHL championship to the Jersey Shore for the next year.

“The feeling is great,” said Skutchan. “I don’t know what to say about it. It’s really great. It’s great to have the winning the goal, but the whole team won the game, not me.”

Rod Simmons and his Fighting Spirit club battled through injuries to get to where they were, and the team certainly put up a strong fight against a club who was the best in the NA3EHL.

“When we got to the four-on-four and the three-on-three we weren’t sure we were going to match up real well,” said Simmons on his team. “They’ve got skilled guys, and they’ve lived off the offense all year, and it was going to be key that we just kept things simple, get the pucks to the net.”

Claes Endre kept his team in the game on multiple occasions, once in particular where he stoned a Wildcat point-blank off of a sloppy clearing attempt by the spirit. Endre flashed his blocker and steered the shot to the corner to prevent any sort of rebound. He ended the contest with 32 saves.

New Jersey found themselves trailing early in the game as Alex Peddle continued his scoring streak from the night before. The Fighting Spirit were forced to kill a minor penalty after a roughing call was assessed to one of the team captains. Peddle took it upon himself to not only assist in killing the penalty, but also to score the first goal of the game. He shot the puck past the glove of the goaltender to put his team up 1-0 halfway through the first period.

“Last night is last night and like they say, a new day is a new day,” said Eric Brule, who coached his team to the championship. “All year we’ve been facing adversity, and we were used to that and we came here with a positive energy, and it was a classic game between Jersey Shore and the Fighting Spirit and it was a one goal game.”

The Wildcats were able to bounce back, but not until after a full second period of Fighting Spirit opportunities. The Wildcats put two goals on the board before the midway point of the third.

The first goal came from Kevin Gruber, who saw his shot trickle past the goal line. Under five minutes later, Ilva Spektor took the pass from Frederic Ampleman and stuffed the puck past Endre to take the one-goal lead.

After a difficult power play where the Fighting Spirit saw very few scoring opportunities, they were graced with another after an elbowing call on the Wildcats’ Gruber. New Hampshire would not leave it for the last few minutes of the game to get things tied up as Brett Bittner recorded a goal from Peddle’s pass behind the net.

This would set up the inevitable overtime scenario where both teams left everything they had on the ice. Marc Schlaeger kept his cool on a couple of the Fighting Spirit chances, but Schlaeger just continued to add to his save total through the overtimes. He ended the night with 29 stops.

The Fighting Spirit are looking forward to calling the Androscoggin Bank Colisee home next season as they make the transition from Laconia, NH to the storied Lewiston arena.

Related Posts

• 
  Several Mainers taken in QMJHL draft
• 
  AHL approves sale and relocation of Portland Pirates to Springfield Hockey, LLC
• 
  Dumont named Bowdoin head coach

You must be logged in to post a comment Login