Big Rapids 3 Portage Northern 2

If "turnabout is fair play," then the Big Rapids Cardinals have evened the score. After losing to Portage Northern a few weeks back in the Monroe SMCC tournament by a score of 3-2, the Cardinals felt they had a score to settle. And they did tonight at the Annex in Kalamazoo by the exact same score. Nick Goodfellow started the scoring for Big Rapids at the 2:09 mark of the first period. Northern's Josh Ruggles and Kevin Campbell were sitting in the box serving minor penalties when Goodfellow ripped a slapper from the point and blasted it past Barry Toornman. Billy McMullen earned the only assist on the goal.

Early in the second period, the Huskies were on the power play, but Mike Hickson took a pass from Tommy Hancock and put the Cardinals up 2-0. The Husky power play got a second chance later in the 2nd period and this time found the back of the net. Travis Tuma snapped a wrister under the glove of Cardinal goalie Curtis Hanba to make the score 2-1. Doug Wheelright and Nicco Braganini earned assists on the goal. The next 16 minutes of action saw both teams battle back and forth with little to show for their efforts. But with 3:06 remaining in the 3rd period Braganini found the back of the net from a sweet pass from Kevin Campbell and the game was tied 2-2.

The crowd was anticipating an overtime finish, but Hickson put that thought to rest when he dangled two Northern defensemen and roofed a shot over Toornman's shoulder with only :26 seconds remaining. Northern pulled Toornman and attempted to tie the game back up, but couldn't get the job done with so little time remaining. The ride home for the Cardinals took an eternity due to awful wintry conditions, but the mood on the bus was definitely sweet.

Thanks to blogger correspondent Bob Wheelright for the write-up and to my new friend Dan Dewitt for the photo up top. You can see more pix of the game here.