Spence & Cohen’s Multi-Goal Heroics, Gibbons’ Starting Debut Give Erie OT Win
October 15, 2022 – Ontario Hockey League (OHL) – Erie Otters News Release
Erie, Pennsylvania – Short-term memory is a necessary component for a hockey team, especially after a tough loss on home ice. For the Erie Otters, Friday night’s contest would have to be a measure of the past. Saturday night would welcome in the Saginaw Spirit for the first time in the 2022-23 season, as the #1 and #2 overall picks in the 2022 OHL Priority Selection Draft would finally meet – Michael Misa (SAG) & Malcolm Spence (ER). An upstart Spirit team would prove to be a worthy adversary in downtown Erie. For the first time in his young career, Rookie Goaltender Jacob Gibbons would get the start in net.
No time would be wasted in terms of getting scoring going in the game, as it would take just :76 for the Spirit to strike. On a redirected shot, Josh Bloom (4) would give Saginaw a 1-0 lead. The second goal of the night for the Spirit would be separated by just 1:21 after the first, as Roberto Mancini (2) would score from the mid-slot. With two goals on their first three shots, it would look like Saginaw was on track to dominate the game. Enter: âElias Cohen (2). With Carey Terrance and Malcolm Spence working in the offensive end, Cohen would strike 4:33 in to get Erie back on the momentum side. In a one-goal game now, Erie would look for the tying goal. They would get it 16:53 into the frame, as Elias Cohen (3) would strike in an unassisted goal. Outshooting Saginaw 7-6 in the first, Erie would take a 2-2 game into the second period.
While offense would be the story of the first period, it would be either teams’ defense that would come up big in the second. Near the halfway mark of the second, Erie would go on – and successfully complete – its second penalty kill of the game. As the period would draw to an end, the Otters would start off on the power play, but it would eventually grow to become a five-on-three that would carry over into the final period. Saginaw would flip the shooting-script in the second, outshooting Erie 7-6 in a 2-2 game.
The story of the third period would be Erie’s offense early, as the Otters would fire off 15 shots to just six from the Saginaw Spirit. Despite the high-shooting offensive showing, Erie would be unable to take the lead, as the Spirit would grab the game’s first goal since the late first period. Roberto Mancini (3) would strike to give Saginaw a 3-2 lead with 5:25 remaining. This score would stand for :16, as Malcolm Spence (2) would immediately score off a won-faceoff by Carey Terrance, and make it a 3-3 game. Without an answer from either side in the dying minutes, the game would head to overtime – Erie grabbing its first point of the weekend in its third extra-time competition of the season.
Saginaw would never touch the puck in the extra period, as the Otters would win the opening draw and take two shots in the 1:31 that Overtime would last for. Malcolm Spence (3) would be the hero for his first-career multi-goal game and first-career game-winning goal as he would lift the Otters to a 4-3 victory over the Spirit.
Jacob Gibbons, in his first OHL start, would stop 16/19 to grab his first-career win at just 15-years-old. Erie will hit the road on Thursday evening, when the team travels across the border to St. Catharine’s, Ontario for a battle with the Niagara IceDogs. The Otters then return home for a weekend pair with the Owen Sound Attack on Friday and Saturday night.
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