The difference a few centimetres can make. For the Warman U18AAA Wildcats leading 4-3 with little over a minute left in the game the puck headed ever so slowly towards the empty net. The home crowd held their breath and gasped as the puck trickled past the left post resulting in an icing call. So close!On the resulting faceoff, the visiting Notre Dame Hounds scored after the puck came out of a large scrum and Remi Lapalme blasted a one-timer to send the game into overtime.
The Hounds went on to score early in the second overtime period to win game two 5-4 and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best of five provincial final.
The Wildcats had went toe to toe with the number one ranked Hounds and came so close to tieing the series at one win each. Had the puck found the empty net, they likely would have sealed the victory.
Notre Dame scored first to take an early lead on a powerplay marker by Remi Lapalme.
Warman tied it up less than a minute later as Brody Mortensen did one of his patented end to end rushes and fed the puck across to Berg Weber who tapped puck past goalie, Joey Rocha.
Hounds Sam Borschowa scored two minutes into the second period.
Warman had another quick response scoring a powerplay marker as Connor Gabriel blasted a one timer to the top corner.
Rhett Deknowy then gave Warman their first lead of the game with assists from Brock Evans and Rylan Silzer.
The Hounds did their own quick response as Joby Baumuller scored an unassisted marker 35 seconds later.
The game was knotted at threes going into the third period.
With five minutes left in the game Connor Gabriel tapped his own rebound past Rocha for what could possibly have been the game winner were it not for events described earlier.
It was not to be as Lapalme blasted his second of the game from the bottom of the faceoff circle to tie the game.
The first 10 minute overtime settled nothing. Cole Wirun scored 30 seconds into the second overtime period to give the visitors the win.
A large crowd was on hand to cheer on the Wildcats at the Legends Centre on Saturday, April 16
The Wildcats will look to extend the series when they travel to Wilcox for game three of the series on Tuesday, April 19. Game four if needed will be at the Legends Centre in Warman on Thursday, April 21.