Talk about a comeback at the Don Cruickshank Memorial Arena.
On Saturday afternoon, the North Island Atom Eagles found themselves down 3-0 against the Comox Valley Chiefs with less than three minutes to go in the first period, before all of a sudden catching fire.
Kyle Rushton put the Eagles on the scoreboard with a beautiful goal at 2:35, assisted by Dakota Knighton, and then the Eagles’ captain Rylan Krawietz scored with 1:17 left to make it 3-2 for the Chiefs before the start of the second period.
The Chiefs kept pressuring offensively throughout the second, making some solid passes and controlling the Eagles’ zone. Elliott Hill scored at 12:56 to put the Chiefs in the lead by two, but the Eagles’ Maddox Peterson answered right back by finding the twine at 12:31 off an excellent pass from Tanner Livingston.
The Eagles continued to pile on the goals from there, as Knighton and Rushton both scored before the end of the period to give the Eagles a 5-4 lead.
The Chiefs weren’t ready to lay down and quit. Liam McKenzie scored off a pass from Colton Howell with just 2:32 left in the second period to tie the game back up, but during the third and final period of play, the Eagles’ Carter Henschke came up clutch by netting the go-ahead goal at 18:18, and then Knighton iced his second goal of the game with 4:10 left on the clock to give the Eagles a hard-fought 7-5 win over the visiting Chiefs.
The Eagles and the Chiefs played again on Sunday morning, and the rematch definitely did not disappoint the loud hometown crowd sitting in the stands.
Krawietz scored twice, once in the first and again in the second, to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead. Rushton then scored with 4:24 left to put the Eagles up 3-0 going into the third period. The Chiefs dug in and tried to pull off a comeback by scoring two goals in the third, but the Eagles shut them down after that, and Travyn Foster netted the puck with 6:16 left in the final period to give the Eagles a strong 4-2 victory.
