The Janesville Bluebirds and West Bend Ice Bears combined for 79
shots on goal Tuesday night in Janesville.
Both goalies were on their game you could say.
Janesville freshman winger Jake Schaffner was on his game, too.
Schaffner scored with just over a minute left in overtime, and goalie
Cody Kaas stopped 40 shots to give Janesville a 2-1 win.
To the fan at the game you knew one thing for sure: with no scoring thru the first 34 minutes of the game that goals were going to be hard to come by. Bears goalie Kenny McAughey and Janesville goalie Kaas brought their 'A games' to this game.
But West Bend finally broke thru early in the third period.
Bears forward Maxx Devenport got the first goal of the game. He scored
on a wrist shot that went glove side for the 1-0 lead. Both teams made
trips to the penalty box that period, which lead to the tying goal by
Janesville.
With a pair of Bear skaters in the box Janesville got a 5 on 3 power play goal by Schaffner. He was able to go 5 hole on a shot that tied the game with 5:52 left. The teams each had a couple rushes before the end of regulation but overtime was in the cards.
In the overtime the Bears came very close to ending it in the first 15
seconds but they played on. Janesville had a 5 on 3 in overtime but did
not convert.
Finally with just over a minute left in over time, on a faceoff Schaffner was able to get the puck and was able to get past a defender, and came in on McAughey. He waited as long as he could and was able to tuck the puck past the right skate on the netminder while coming across the crease.
Janesville improved to 7-11 on the season and play Madison West Thursday night. West Bend falls to 5-11, and host Brookfield on Saturday.