The Ninja Pandas continued their recent dominant success in the HNX by holding off Top Cheese, 3-2, in overtime to win the 2023 Winter Tourney in what will be an instant classic in the HNX lores.
Ninja Panda netminder, Jordan Goalie, channeled his inner-Tim Dupuis and played an outstanding game making 39 saves, including a clean breakaway opportunity from Top Cheese centerman, Ale Tarantelli, in the OT frame.
"I couldn't beat him tonight. He played a great game, for sure. I would have scored at least a few tonight on any other goalie. But Jordan was great for them", said Tarantelli. "I didn't get the job done tonight - period".
Emily Mak opened the scoring for the Ninja Pandas late in the first period off a beautiful pass from behind the net from linemate Ashley Kim.
Mak, who's no stranger to scoring big time goals, was left wide open and easily sniped it past Tim Ip.
Both teams traded scoring opportunities in the second period but both goalies shined brightly stopping all the shots.
It took more than 40 minutes but Top Cheese finally solved Jordan goalie when superstar Dino Spinozzi banked home a rebound off a shot from the point by Kevin Siu.
A few minutes after, Tarantelli had an excellent chance to even the game when he accidentally dangled Lindsay Collins but couldn't beat Jordan goalie up high on the blocker side.
More importantly though, the mood in the building had changed and you could sense Top Cheese was ready to pounce and their hard work would soon pay off.
It didn't take long.
Cory Fulford poked away a puck from Matt Tang's stick who was desperately trying to keep a clearing attempt inside the offensive zone and sprung away himself and linemate, Chris Yang, on a 2-0 rush that saw Yang bury the puck in the back of the net over Jordan Goalie's glove.
With the game now squared, the exhausted and beaten squads played more conservatively for the remainder of the period, sensing overtime was probably in the cards.
Once overtime began, any signs of exhaustion quickly faded and they abandoned their gameplan as the wider ice allowed reckless offensive opportunities back and forth.
A minute into the overtime frame, Tarantelli was left alone in the slot and Will Song's errant pass somehow found Tarantelli's stick. He faked a slap shot and then let loose a half snap shot that hit Jordan Goalie squarely in the chestpad.
On the very same shift, Tarantelli picked off a Matt Tang behind-the-back pass and raced past Peter Pham, who was at the tail-end of a long shift and ran out of gas, but again, he could not beat Jordan goalie.
Moments later, on another poor passing play - this time from Top Cheese - Jordan Mak picked up the puck, walked in a few feet away from the netminder and buried the game winner past Ip and the Ninja Panda faithful erupted in victorious fashion.