Lennartsson Bites His Former Team

Columbus, GA - It took 4:21 of bonus hockey but the River Dragons win 5-4 in overtime on Saturday thanks to a late shot from former Watertown Wolf Anton Lennartsson.

For the second night in a row Watertown opened the scoring when Tyler Gjurich finished off a great move around a River Dragons defender and went five-hole on Cody Karpinski for a 1-0 lead 1:35 into the game.

Less than two minutes after the Gjurich opening goal it was CJ Hayes firing one off the post and in on a rush down the left wing side. For Hayes he now has goals in three straight games.

Later in the period Ivan Bondarenko would tally one on the power play on a backdoor pass set up by great vision from YIanni Liarakos. Liarakos now has points in each of his last three games.

Watertown would get it tied before the end of the period though, Tyler Gjurich again, this time on the power play sniped one top right corner with a perfect shot past by Karpinski and the teams were level through 20 minutes.

Coming out to start the second, the Wolves got a lead back when Jamie Lukas buried just 54 seconds into the period after Gjurich set him up on a 2-on-1 pass.

Watertown's lead would hold for most of the second period but after a penalty kill for Columbus the PK unit got some extra wind at the end of a long shift and moved up ice. Liarakos bore down right circle and passed across to Jon Evans who's shot was stopped but popped into the air off of Pommerville and landed in the net for Evans' first as a pro.

Before the crowd could sit back down though, the Wolves restored their one-goal lead when the brothers Desjarlais combined for another goal on the weekend. This time Michael fed Dallas on a half-breakaway and his shot popped over Karpinski who sprawled out to attempt to make the save.

Facing a 4-3 deficit in the third the River Dragons killed off multiple penalties and finally were rewarded for their grit and defense when Jake Howie held a puck in at the center point and fired a shot low on the ice that was deflected home by Chase Fallis for his 5th of the season. The tie score would last all the way to the extra period.

In the overtime, Columbus would outshoot Watertown 5-1 and the final shot belonged to Anton Lennartsson who came out from behind the net and found some space in the high slot. A seeing eye shot found the back of the net and Columbus took two out of three points on the night for the win.

Cody Karpinski gets his first win of the season stopping 42 of 46 shots during the game. Jeremy Pominville takes the loss, he stopped 39 of 44 shots Columbus fired his way.

The River Dragons now look ahead to a 3-in-3 weekend with the Port Huron Prowlers starting Thursday night at the Civic Center. Tickets to that game are general admission and are available at the Civic Center box office or on TicketMaster. The weekend closes with Hometown Heroes night and a specialty jersey auction on LiveSource. Hometown Heroes night brought to you by APCU and WTVM.

Three Stars of the Game

Anton Lennartsson
Jon Evans
Tyler Gjurich (WTR)