Shamrocks rally in third for knot with Norwich

NORWICH – The Hespeler Shamrocks connected for four goals in the third period to rally for a 5-5 standoff with the Norwich Merchants in Provincial Junior Hockey League play Friday night at the Nor-Del Arena.

Norwich led 2-0 at the end of the first period and 5-1 after the second before the Shamrocks came back with their third-period scoring. Of those third-period goals, three came after the period’s 12-minute mark including a pair 50 seconds apart to cut the gap to a single goal.

Hespeler Shamrocks 5 Norwich 5

Thomas Giffin pulled Hespeler even with his first of the season, an empty-netter (really?) with 1:31 to go in regulation time.

A seven-minute overtime period was scoreless although Hespeler had a power play in the extra period.

Ian Geffros, Tyler MacGillivary, Kyle Wagner and Anthony Zakhary scored the other goals for the Shamrocks while Matthew Diebolt had two assists and Brett Hartin, Callum Harvey, Nick Donelle, Jayvin Ramjit, MacGillivary, Zakhary and Wagner each had one.

Jack Gee had a hat trick for Norwich while Ben Hipkin and Reid Lazou added the other goals. Austin Forsyth and Joel Storoschuk each had two assists while single assists were given to Lazou, Nathan Da Silva, Layne Cartwright and Hipkin.

Norwich outshot the Shamrocks 43-37 and went 1-for-6 on its power play while Hespeler went 1-for-8.

Joseph Clark had 38 saves to get the tie in net for Hespeler while Carver Monroe had 32 saves for Norwich.

The Shamrocks and Merchants are in a battle for fifth place in the Doherty Division. Norwich has 23 points, three more than the Shamrocks, and have a game in hand on Hespeler.

Hespeler has three games left on its regular-season schedule. The Shamrocks are to host the Wellesley Applejacks Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the Hespeler Memorial Arena, play the New Hamburg Firebirds at Wilmot March 5 at 7:30 p.m. and host the Merchants March 6 at 3:30 p.m.

• Guelph Sports Journal