The Timon Tigers found themselves down 3-1 to Hamburg after two periods of play Monday night, but they wanted a win, especially with new head coach Matt English behind the bench for the first time.
“We went in and had a nice talk after the second period and just told them we expected more,” English said.
A Timon power play goal 8:19 into the third put the game back in reach for the Tigers, and Brian Makowski’s goal with 11 seconds left in regulation sent the Tigers and Bulldogs to overtime, and Ryan Miller’s second goal of the night gave Timon a 4-3 overtime win.
Defenseman Colin Bartoo scored the first goal of the game just 2:10 into the first period to give Hamburg a 1-0 lead. Miller’s first of the game came less than four minutes later to tie the game at one, and the first period ended that way.
Hamburg’s Jake Hangen took an interference penalty just 51 seconds into the second, but shortly after the Bulldogs killed the penalty, Hangen set up Jason Delmont for the go-ahead goal. Neil Dake scored a power play goal late in the second to give Hamburg a safer 3-1 lead to take into the intermission.
“We get one goal, that puts us back in the game,” Makowski said. “We get two goals — we know we just gotta get that one just to get that step forward. And we did, so it gave us some momentum to finish.”
“Coach told us to come out hard, play the body,” Miller said. “Came out hard, started hitting, then we got the first one, and that second one with 11 seconds, and we were just rolling. Then we got that OT winner.”
Timon pelted Hamburg goaltender Griffin Coppola with 16 shots in the third (34 total for the night). Coppola stopped most, but Patrick Faliero scored on the power play 8:19 into the third, assisted by Gavin Farrell, and all that was left was Makowski’s goal with 11 seconds left, assisted by Ryan Miller.
“There was a lot of chaos in front of the net, and I think Millsy was whacking at it,” Makowski said. “It trickled back, and there was really no mistake in shooting it there. To be honest, I wasn’t aiming for anything, just launched it on net, and it got in, so I was pretty happy with that.”
“We saw that we were taking it to ’em pretty good,” English said. “We probably went a good six minutes, they didn’t get the puck out. I know we caught a nice break on a power play, we scored when we pulled the goalie, and I think the momentum switched. We scored that goal to tie the game, and that gave us the momentum. Our guys were on their toes. I think that [Hamburg] was a little flat, a little tired, and it worked good. We had four lines that worked hard today.”
Hamburg had one shot on goal in overtime; Timon had five. The fifth came from Miller 2:48 into the overtime period. Jake Blidy was credited with the assist for his second of the game.
“I got the puck from Mako’s nice pass off the boards, skated down on a 1-on-1, kinda slowed it up, waited for Blidy to start skating to the slot, and I just tossed it to the front, chipped it right by the goalie,” Miller said.
It’s a new atmosphere in the Timon Hockey Club with head coach Matt English and assistant coaches Mike McCarthy, Chris Panek, and Glenn Donato.
“They’re kinda more hitting coaches, more aggressive,” Miller said. “They try to get us to play hard, play the body, keep going fast.”
“Just never give up, that’s really it,” Makowski said. “You could see we were down, and late in the game, and after the intermission, boys were rollin’. We wanted to get that dub.”
And the Tigers earned the first win for their new coaching staff, but English didn’t take credit for it after the game.
“No kudos to the coaches,” English said. “It’s all on the players. We just tell them what to do. They gotta do it.”
CORRECTION: Timon’s fourth goal, the overtime winner, was originally credited to Ryan Miller from Jake Blidy. Correct scoring is Blidy from Miller.