Watertown, N.Y.- For the third night in a row, the Watertown Wolves and Elmira Mammoth would square off against each other, the second night out of three in the Watertown Municipal Arena. 
Unlike the scoring fest on Saturday evening that saw a total of 9 goals scored, Sunday nights matchup turned out to be a battle of goal tenders. Each team would get several quality scoring opportunities in the first period, but Elmira’s Harley White and Watertown’s Owen Liskiewicz stood in their respective goals keeping the game scoreless through the first 20 minutes.
Watertown narrowly out shot Elmira 13-12 in the period.
Unlike period one, both teams were able to finally solve the opposing netminders to put points on the board. At just 1:28 of the second, Elmira’s Dalton Anderson took advantage of a sharp crossing pass from Yanni Liarakos and redirected the puck past Liskiewicz to put the Mammoth up briefly 1-0. The Wolves got even just a 1:14 later when an Elijah Wilson wrist shot from just inside the left point took an odd bounce and was misplayed by White and went off the inside of his leg and trickled into the goal, knotting the game at one a piece.
The game would remain knotted at 1-1 through the remaining portion of the period as again Watertown would out shoot Elmira, this time 13-11.
Period three would remain tied at one goal each until Nick Gullo found Tate Leeson streaking down the slot and fed a perfect pass to the front of the goal where Leeson was able to drive it home past Liskiewicz putting the Mammoth back out front once again.
With the score 2-1 both teams would take turns getting good offensive rushes, but again both net minders were up to the challenge.
The Wolves thought they had tied the game with just over a minute and a half remaining in regulation. Jackson Bond ripped a shot from the slot that was redirected in front and found its way to the back of the cage with one official signaling a goal. But the celebration was short lived when the goal was waved off when it was ruled to be played off a high stick.
Elmira would hold on to avoid the weekend sweep and pick up a 2-1 win.
Watertown for the third night in a row out shot Elmira 45-31. Elmira went 0 for 4 on power play chances while Watertown was 0 for 6 with the extra man.
Next weekend the Wolves will travel down Rt 81 in New York to face the Binghamton Black Bears on Friday night, then return home on Saturday to entertain the Danbury Hat Tricks.
by Jeff Barrett
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