It was close, but no cigar for the Henderson Silver Knights.
On Saturday, the Silver Knights would mount an impressive effort late, but came up just short in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
The Firebirds would be rewarded for keeping the pressure on the Silver Knights early. Late in the first period, Logan Morrison was able to find Jani Nyman in the slot, who made no mistake in firing the puck past Jesper Vikman. The goal was Nyman’s 10th in the last 12 games, adding to a tremendous stretch.
That was the only blemish of what was a tremendous opening 20 minutes for Vikman, who made 14 saves on 15 shots, including stopping a deflection in the final minutes of the period.
“Well, I liked his first period a lot,” said Silver Knights head coach Ryan Craig about Vikman’s performance. “He’s battling for us.”
The second period would get off to a fast start, courtesy of Ben Hemmerling. The pick would find Hemmerling in front of the net, where he cashed in and fired it past Firebirds goaltender Jack LaFontaine to tie the game at one.
“Just another great play by [Tanner Laczynski],” said Hemmerling on the goal. “[Jackson] Hallum, nice pass through the slot there, just kind of laid it in there for [Laczynski] to do his thing…and [Laczynski] was able to find me.
After tempers began to flare, the Firebirds would take full control. Logan Morrison would give the lead back to Coachella Valley on the power play, then scored his second goal of the game just over two minutes later to give the Firebirds some cushion.
With a minute remaining in the third period and the Firebirds keeping the Silver Knights in check, all seemed lost.
Then, Raphael Lavoie proceeded to take over the game.
With 36 seconds left to play, Lavoie was able to win a battle in front of the net to secure another goal in close to push the Silver Knights within one. He responded 20 seconds later to tie the game at three goals apiece and force an overtime that earlier seemed inconceivable.
“I thought [Lavoie] was good at the end there. I think he’s working his way back still,” said Craig.
“It’s tough to come back after sitting out and playing three in four but, to his credit, he dug in at the end there and got us two big goals.”
Unfortunately, it would not be enough to secure a win, as Ty Nelson took advantage of an overtime power play to secure the win for Coachella Valley.
“We’ll catch our breath, for sure,” said Craig about the upcoming All-Star break. “We played a lot of hockey in three days, some even more because of the penalties tonight…we’ll get away from it for a few days. Obviously, we’re excited about [Laczynski] representing us at the All-Star Game, but we got a push to make here in the final 29 games.”