HUM GETS OVERTIME WINNER AS CRUSHERS TOP BLADES

Geoff Hum was the overtime hero on Monday night, scoring 5:01 into the extra frame to give the Weeks Crushers a 4-3 victory over the Oakville Blades at the 2008 RBC Cup.

Hum collected the puck at the blue line and snapped a shot past a screened Oliver Wren, giving the Crushers their first win at the National Junior A Championship and handing the Blades their first two-game losing streak of the season.

The goal came with Weeks a man up after Oakville was called for too many men on the ice early in the overtime period.

The win moves Weeks to 1-1 heading into a Tuesday night showdown with the host Cornwall Colts (7:00 p.m. ET), who also enter at 1-1, while the Blades drop to 0-2 and have games remaining against the nation’s top two teams, Camrose and Humboldt.

Despite being outshot 15-5 in the opening 20 minutes, it was the Crushers who hit the board first, as Kevin McLean converted the rebound of a Jordan Knox shot to give the East Region champions a 1-0 lead.

The Blades struck back just past the eight-minute mark of the second period as Chris Haltigin gathered in a loose puck to the right of Alexandre Quessy and snapped the puck past the Weeks netminder to draw his team even, and Dustin Alcock scored in a similar fashion four minutes later to give Oakville their first lead at 2-1.

The Central Region champions held a whopping 35-15 advantage in shots on goal through the first 40 minutes, but held only a one-goal lead entering the third period.

It took just 11 seconds of the third for Weeks to get back in the game, as Knox picked up a big hop off the end boards and beat a sprawling Wren to knot the game up once again, this time at 2-2.

Taylor Farris scored four minutes into the period to restore the Blades’ lead, but once again the Crushers clawed back, as Tyson Cameron tied it up with just 3:54 remaining, setting up Hum’s overtime heroics.

Quessy, who made 42 saves, was Weeks’ player of the game, while Farris, who added an assist to go along with his goal, picked up the honour for Oakville.

The Blades will look to avoid being pushed closer to elimination on Wednesday afternoon, when they face the Humboldt Broncos at 2:00 p.m. ET.

LISTEN! – EST head coach Troy Ryan’s thoughts on the game
LISTEN! – CEN head coach Carlo Coccimiglio’s thoughts on the game