Steelheads outlast Lions, win after penalties

Posted on by

BOISE, ID – The Idaho Steelheads (12-7-2-0) defeated the Trois-Rivieres Lions (10-5-2-1) 4-3 in a shootout on Wednesday night at Idaho Central Arena. The Steelheads will continue their series with the Lions on Friday before concluding the action on Saturday, with puck drop for both games set for 7:10 p.m. MST.

STEELHEADS OUTLAST LIONS IN 4-3 SHOOTOUT VICTORY

The Lions opened the scoring at the 13:58 mark of the first period after Joel Teasdale deflected in a Riley Kidney shot just seconds into a power play to give Trois-Rivières a 1-0 lead. Five minutes later, the Lions extended their lead to two after Jacob Dion flew down the left side and deposited the puck just above netminder Ben Kraws’ blocker for a shorthanded goal late in the period. The Steelhead would get one back before the end of the frame, though, as Aidan Hreschuk put a changeup on Lions goaltender Ben Gaudreau that snuck into the net and gave Hreschuk his first professional/ECHL goal with just 33 seconds remaining in the opening period.

The next goal wouldn’t come until the final minute of the second stanza, when Tyler Hylland scored from the left circle to extend the Lions’ lead to 3-1 heading into the intermission.

In the third period, Ty Pelton-Byce got the Steelheads back within one after he deflected a Jaden Shields point shot into the net from the slot at the 7:08 mark of the frame. Later in the third period, with the Steelheads still trailing by one goal, Angus MacDonell evened the score at 3-3 by deflecting a point shot from Sam Jardine to help force overtime.

Despite 13 combined shots and several quality chances between the teams in overtime, the game went to a shootout, the first for the Steelheads this season.

After the first four shooters all failed to score, Kaleb Pearson finally beat Gaudreau from in between the hash marks to put Idaho ahead. With the game on the line, Kraws then followed with one final stop on Tommy Cormier to seal the comeback win for Idaho.

Kraws stopped 35 of 38 shots in the win, while Gaudreau turned away 32 of 35 shots in the loss.

ICCU THREE STARS 

  1. Kaleb Pearson (IDH, 0-0-0, -1, 4 shots, shootout winner)
  2. Ty Pelton-Byce (IDH, 1-0-1, -1, 3 shots)
  3. Charles Martin (TR, 0-2-2, 0, 1 shot)