Medric Mercier saved the best for last for the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks.
The Winterhawks stud defender scored first, and last, to give the Winterhawks a 5-4 win over the visiting Milverton 4-Wheel Drives on Friday night at The Plex.
The game was sponsored by Bruce Telecom, a Day 1 sponsor of the Winterhawks, and thanks to Stephanie Brunato, who dropped the puck to kick off the evening.
Clayton Fritsch picked up the start in the Winterhawks net and thwarted a Milverton power play before the Winterhawks got an advantage of their own late in the opening frame.
Mercier picked up his first of the night right off the faceoff as Justin Donnelly won the draw to Brent MacDermid.
MacDermid sent the puck to Mercier at the point, who fired a low shot through traffic into the Milverton net to give the Winterhawks a 1-0 lead after one.
Milverton answered back early in the 2nd to knot the game at 1-1.
An unfortunate turn of events came three minutes later when a Winterhawks defender attempted to carry the puck out of the Winterhawks zone, but got tangled up with the trailing referee.
The collision sent Milverton’s Carson Wickie in alone, Fritsch made the initial save, but Wickie followed up with a wraparound for the zebra-assisted goal to give the Drives a 2-1 lead.
The Winterhawks rebounded in fine fashion five minutes later on the power play when Andy Mitchell fired a quick shot past Milverton goalie Tyler Fassl to tie the score at 2-2. Josh Deyell picked up an assist on the goal.
The Winterhawks kept the pressure up, as they did for most of the night, and it paid off at 15:39 when Andy Fracz slid a pass into the slot to Luke Pither.
The Ontario Elite Hockey League’s leading scorer made no mistake, dancing around a Milverton defender and Fassl for a beautiful goal to give the Winterhawks a 3-2 lead.
Curtis Johnston added to the lead as the second period drew to a close, scoring from the side of the crease from Mitchell and Mike Fiegehen to give the home side a 4-2 lead after two.
For the second straight home game, the Winterhawks paid for a slow start to the third period.
Milverton attacked off the opening faceoff, putting a knuckle-puck past Fritsch 12-seconds into the period to make it a 4-3 Winterhawks lead.
The 4-Wheel Drives evened the score on the power play at 4:42 when Corey Flemington fired a low shot through traffic to make it a 4-4 game.
The Winterhawks didn’t bend despite the adversity, hanging in and controlling the play for most of the third period from there.
As time wore down in regulation, the Winterhawks continued to pressure the Milverton net.
With one last gasp before overtime, Pither got the puck back to Deyell at the point, who slid a pass over to Mercier on the left side.
Mercier walked a few steps and fired a perfect shot over the right shoulder of Fassl to give the Winterhawks a 5-4 victory with just four seconds remaining in regulation.
No surprise Mercier was named the Wismer House Player of the Game with his two goals, while Fritsch made 33 saves in the Winterhawks net for the win.
The Winterhawks will be right back on the ice on Saturday evening, travelling to Thornbury to face the Georgian Bay Applekings at 5:30 p.m. with some extra motivation, as the Winterhawks wives and girlfriends will be making the trip to cheer on the boys.
