Wolves sweep the home-and-home series over the Hat Tricks in overtime.
**Watertown, NY** - The Watertown Wolves swept the home-and-home series over the Danbury Hat Tricks at the Watertown Municipal Arena in Watertown New York. The series began with a 6-0 victory for the Wolves on Friday night in Danbury and followed up with an OT thriller in Watertown. The first twenty minutes of the game on Saturday night were littered with both teams committing unnecessary penalties, leading to a total of four power-play goals—two for each team.
The scoring opened just 1:45 into the period with a goal from Alaeksandr Gamzatov, who capitalized on a rebound in front of the net to beat Wolves' starter Garrett Johnson. Connor Woolley and Kyle Gonzalez assisted in the play.
Watertown's Chiwetin Blacksmith equalized the game at 1-1 with a power-play goal, assisted by Andrew Whalen and Mike Mercurio, beating the Hat Tricks' starting goalie Connor McCollum. The Wolves regained the lead at the 14:39 mark when Kyle Heitzner scored, with assists from Chiwetin Blacksmith and Mike Mercurio, also on a power play. The Hat Tricks tied the game again at 6:37 in the period when Cory Anderson scored another power-play goal, assisted by Bohdan Zinchenko and Alaeksandr Gamzatov. The first period ended with a score of 2-2, and shots on goal were 15 for Danbury and 14 for Watertown.
Anton Borodkin took over goaltending duties for the Wolves in the second period. However, similar to the first, the Hat Tricks struck first, with Gaetano Delonge scoring at the 1:48 mark, assisted by Connor Woolley, which put Danbury back in the lead at 3-2. The Hat Tricks extended their lead to 4-2 at 4:19 when Vadim Frolov found the back of the net, with assists from Chase Harwell and Johnny Ruiz. Borodkin's short night ended there, and Johnson returned to the crease for the Wolves.
The Wolves narrowed the gap to 4-3 at 12:55 with a goal from Chiwetin Blacksmith, assisted by Mike Mercurio. Once again, Danbury outshot the Wolves in the second period, 14-9, and held a 4-3 lead at the break.
In the third period, Kyle Heitzner tied the score at 4-4 with a goal at the 5:20 mark, assisted by Junior Harris and Trevor Grasby. The game remained tied at the end of regulation, sending it into overtime for the second consecutive week at home.
During the overtime period, Trevor Lord scored with a shot over McCollum's outstretched glove, securing a 5-4 victory for the Wolves. Assists on the winning goal were credited to Kyle Heitzner and Trevor Neumann.
Next weekend, the Wolves will host the Danville Dashers on Friday and Saturday nights, with both games set to begin at 7:30 PM.