East Grand Rapids 4 Hudsonville 3 (OT)

Hockey people are a superstitious bunch. That may be why Hudsonville Coach Jason Caster wandered over to me as the third period wound down with the score tied 3-3 and said, "I was going to send you home after the second period."

Caster has been a supporter of the Blog since early on, and he no doubt knows that about 10 of the "games to watch" the WMHSH Blogger has attended, including two previous Hudsonville tilts, have ended up going to overtime. Caster must have been feeling something in the second, because through most of two periods, this one looked more likely to end early than head to OT. Hudsonville was using its speed and freewheeling offense to outgun EGR, and was up 3-0 with less than a minute to go in the period on goals by Jordan Jonker, Robby Decker and Parker Host. They'd put up 27 shots and even had two shorthanded chances on breakaways while Host was in the box for elbowing. Plus H'ville goalie Pete Herman was playing pretty well himself, turning aside 25 Pioneer shots in the first 29:38 of play.

Then East Grand Rapids scored with 22 ticks left in the second period to make it 3-1, and we all know that goals at the end of a period can sometimes be killers. The goal, by senior Ecko Morgan, gave EGR something positive to talk about in the locker room between periods. When the Pioneers came out in the third, they started flying. Just 2:30 into the period, sophomore Drew O'Brien took a feed from Greg Afendoulis, made a move around the defender inside the blue line and beat Herman to cut the score to 3-2. Five minutes later, O'Brien would feed Morgan on the PP to make it 3-3.

Hudsonville continued to press, firing 11 shots on EGR's goaltender Ian McDonald in the third, but they couldn't sneak one past. Their best chance came with 1:51 left in the period, when EGR was whistled for covering the puck in the crease and Hudsonville was awarded a penalty shot. Alex Host, a second team all-stater last year, took the shot and tried to deke, but lost control of the puck momentarily and couldn't get much on the shot, which McDonald swallowed up with his left pad. The save was a great moment of redemption for the Pioneers goalie, who'd let a center ice slapshot slip by him with just 6 seconds left in the first period.

The teams finished the period, and play resumed in the extra session. Hudsonville continued to fly around looking for the win and, at one point, had all five players below the dots in the EGR zone. They got back on that play, but shortly after that, the Pioneers Jeff Kallil gathered in a loose puck in the neutral zone and broke free, netting the game-winner at the 4:38 mark of overtime (pictured above). Final shots were 41-38 in favor of Hudsonville.

The net of it: Great game, especially for a non-league exhibition. This was the kind of game that both teams can learn from and build on as they head into the home stretch of conference games and playoffs. Pictures and scoresheet are below.