Hawks watch win slip away

WASILLA -- In sports there is such thing as a premature celebration, but there was seemingly nothing premature about the Hawks storming the ice after Larry Kincaid scored what everyone in the Brett Ice Arena, except for the East Thunderbirds, thought was the game-winning goal on Saturday.

But the Thunderbirds caught a break, and Houston's triumphant victory over the state's second-ranked team was snatched away as East skated to a 5-4 overtime over the Hawks.

With nine seconds left in regulation, Kincaid, standing just right of the East goal, took a pass from Wade Williams and put the puck past East goaltender Eric Mieczynski. The power-play goal gave Houston a 4-3 advantage over East.

Kincaid threw his hands in the air and skated to the blue line where he was mauled by his Hawk teammates, as Houston thought it had pulled off the hockey upset of the year. With just seconds left on the clock, all Houston needed to do was throw the puck down the ice and kill the final nine seconds of the game.

And Houston thought that is what it did. The buzzer sounded and Houston celebrated, again. But while the Hawks were cheering, East was complaining. The T-Birds argued the Hawks iced the puck prior to the buzzer. The end result was the referees putting three seconds back onto the clock, and the puck into the Houston zone.

That is where Houston's dream became a nightmare as East forward Ryan Orebaugh flipped the puck over the shoulder of Hawk goaltender Paul Sutton-Jones just as the clock hit zeroes to tie the score at 4-4.

John Earnest skated across the crease and scored 2 minutes and 14 seconds into the overtime period to give East the 5-4 win.

Houston head coach Jamie Smith was understandably confused and frustrated about the outcome.

"It's too bad, they worked their butts off," Smith said. "The kids came out and battled. I guess we were a little cursed.

"We essentially won, this is a big step for our program."

In what normally could be foreseen as a mismatch, a highly ranked 4A squad against a small school program, Houston came out gunning for the upset. The 3A power, which has earned two of the last three state championships, led 2-1 after the first period.

Houston took a 1-0 lead just 3:52 into the game as Houston connected on one of its patented "home run" plays. Chad McClurg hit a streaking Kincaid, just below the East blue line. Kincaid pulled a nifty move, shoved the puck between his legs, moved past East defenseman Kevin Ambro and scored.

"Our goal was to get out first, get some confidence especially with young kids," Smith said. "We didn't want to battle back the whole game."

"We expected a close game," East coach John Lamebull said. "They're a hard-nosed team. Their first line is as good as any in the state."

East's Casey Shade scored late in the first period to tie the game at 1-1, but Chad Lipse brought the momentum back to Houston's end 89 seconds later with a score of his own to give the Hawks a 2-1 advantage.

East scored early in both the second and third periods to take a 3-2 lead, but the Hawks stormed back midway through the third to tie the game. With about eight minutes remaining in regulation, Matt Bertling drove the puck into the Houston zone and shifted a pass to McClurg. The Hawk senior put a shot on goal and Devin Styers tapped in a rebound to tie the game.

Random shots … Each team was 1-4 on the power play … Sutton-Jones stopped 44 shots in the game, including 30 of 32 in the first two periods … Houston put 26 shots on goal … Wade Williams drew a late penalty after he was drug down by Ambrose while streaking toward the East net. The Ambrose penalty gave Houston the man advantage and led to Kincaid's go-ahead goal … Houston plays its next six games on the road. The Hawks have a three-game trip to Delta and Kenny Lake Dec. 11-13, and a three-game trip to the Kenai Peninsula, Dec. 18-20. Houston returns to the Brett Jan. 9 to take on Wasilla.