Trevor Costello was the double overtime hero for the RDC Kings in a wild 3-2 win over the SAIT Trojans Saturday night in Penhold.
Chase Thudium found the second-year defenceman streaking through the Trojans’ zone and Costello buried a backhand past netminder Payton Lee to win the game for RDC with only 67 seconds left.
“It was great for Trev. He could have scored the game winner (Friday), put us up, really nice goal. Our defencemen have the green light to jump in on offence. We want a five-man attack,” Kings head coach Trevor Keeper said.
“Even in overtime– we’ve been in overtime so many times already. It’s all about confidence and poise and not panicking with the puck.”
It was a crucial two points for the Kings, who jumped into second place in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference standings with just four games remaining.
“Tough game, tough series this year against SAIT. We’re two different teams. They get physical and a little chippy and we rely on our speed. But we have team toughness to back it up, too,” Keeper said.
“They have a goaltender that’s a four-year Western Hockey League goaltender and we had to put a lot of shots up on them. The guys found a way.”
From the puck drop, it was a battle between the two longtime rivals as they combined for 64 minutes of penalties and Keeper said discipline for his club is something they’ve had to address all year long.
“We have to remind them constantly. We get more sticks broken against (SAIT) than anyone else. It’s tough, it is chippy but we talked non-stop all weekend about controlling our emotions and trying to let our power play do the job,” Keeper said.
Austin Hunter opened the scoring for RDC at 10:15 of the second, when he crashed the net after a Jacob Wozney shot off the rush.
SAIT battled back to tie the game on a Pat Martens’ tip high over the shoulder of RDC netminder Mike Salmon with just 30 seconds left in the second. Salmon, a fifth-year goalie was player of the game with 34 stops.
RDC took the lead midway through the third on a scramble in front of Lee that Dylan Thudium eventually put home.
The Trojans again fought back and sent the game to overtime when a shot from the half wall by Geoff Crisfield beat Slamon short side with only 14 seconds left in regulation.
Lee was also named player of the game for SAIT, he also finished the night with 34 saves.
The Kings are off to Lac La Biche next weekend for a pair of games against the Portage College Voyageurs.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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