Morgan the overtime hero in Storm game three victory

Interim Head Coach Ryan Aasman said after the game that while Bierd and Morgan were on the shorthanded rush, the coaches were calling for Morgan to change as he’d been out on the penalty kill for a while.

“In all honesty, I saw Bierd stretch up the ice and said, ‘you know what, why not?’” said Morgan. “I went up there with him and sure enough, it turned up on our side and a couple lucky bounces and next thing you know ended up in the back of the net.”

“We were yelling at Morgan to change and he ended up scoring, so I kind of laughed as I’m going off the bench because I wanted him off,” said Aasman. “He saw something that we didn’t and that was just a high offensive IQ play by Morgan.”

The game saw the Storm battle back from deficits all night.

In the second period, Graham Gamache would capitalize on the power play and score his first of the playoffs to open up the scoring for the Saints to give them a 1-0 lead.

It would remain that way until 4:45 into the third when Max Giangualano found Jackson Wozniak on the back door off a Saints turnover to tie the game up at 1-1.

At 7:43 of the period, Jackson Wozniak headed to the box for High-Sticking, sending the Saints back to the powerplay.

A Ryan Conroy wrist shot from the top of the circle would beat Kaeden Lane through a screen on the ensuing power play to give the Saints back their one-goal lead. The goal was the Saints seventh power play goal of the series.

With 4:58 remaining in the period, the Storm would once again draw even as Bierd would make a cross-ice pass to Morgan, who would roof a goal past Matthew Davis to tie the game up at 2-2 and eventually send the game to overtime.

The game tying goal for Morgan was his first goal since January 12, a span of 17 games where the 18-year-old was held scoreless.

In overtime, the Storm ended up killing off three Saints powerplays, while Lane stopped all 23 shots in faced in the overtime sessions. He stopped 49 of 51 shots over the course of the game to lead the Storm to victory.

After the game, Lane spoke about how he was able to keep his composure throughout five periods of hockey.

“I just didn’t get too high when we got a chance, didn’t overthink anything. Just played and had fun,” said Lane.

“The goaltending tandem has been our backbone for the entire year, and they’ve kept us in every game,” said Aasman of both the work of Lane and his goaltending mate Lars Kaliel. “They haven’t been able to steal us one until tonight. It’s a tandem, Lane’s not as good of a goalie without Lars and Lars isn’t as good of a goalie without Lane. They push each other every day and they’ve been outstanding and another great effort by Lane tonight.”

Aasman also talked about how his team was able to stay calm and have fun instead of playing scared.

“I think that the fear was gone. We were so scared in game one to blow that lead and our biggest fear happened. We learned from it and we played so loose tonight. We played with nothing to lose, we were comfy at home, the boys found a way to do it and me and Taylor Makin were just along for the ride.”

It’s the Storm’s first win at home since January 4 and their first win since January 9.

It was also the longest game of the AJHL playoffs so far.

The Storm look to even the series up at 2-2 tonight at Revolution Place. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.

by Shane Clausing

Morgan the overtime hero in Storm game three victory

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