Ben Duperreault had a pretty eventful weekend.
The 16-year-old began it, by making his Western Hockey League debut Friday night with the Moose Jaw Warriors. Sunday afternoon he beat the buzzer in overtime to give the Moose Jaw Generals their seventh straight win.
Dakota Boutin tied the game with 56.4 seconds left in regulation and Duperreault’s buzzer-beater in overtime gave the Generals a 4-3 win over the Tisdale Trojans.
“It was a nice play by Rhett (Gardner) to get it to the net and the seven-game winning streak feels great,” said Duperreault who felt the goal was legal. “Yeah I think I just snuck it in, in the last dying second.
“It’s a great feeling. I had a great weekend.”
Saturday there was no such drama as the Generals cruised to a 7-2 win over the Trojans.
The Generals (18-8-3) began the weekend one point ahead of Tisdale in the standings, but have now moved into a tie for second in the Sask. Midget AAA Hockey League.
Generals 4 Trojans 3 (OT)
The Generals had a defensive zone face-off with 13 seconds left in overtime when Tisdale called a time out to set up a play.
Instead it was Generals captain Rhett Gardner who went racing the other way with the puck. Gardner was able to beat his defenceman and get a shot on goal that Tisdale’s Nik Amundrud fought off. Duperreault was hustling to join the play and was able to shoot the puck over the sprawled Amundrud from a tight angle and into the top part of the net as the buzzer sounded.
The Trojans protested, the Generals celebrated and the goal counted.
The Trojans took a 3-1 lead early in the third period thanks to a power play goal.
Duperreault scored to cut the lead to 3-2 before Boutin buried a rebound to force overtime.
Trey Tendler capped a good game with the Generals’ other goal. He also assisted on the game-tying goal.
Generals 7 Trojans 2
The Generals raced out to a 4-0 lead 1:37 into the second period and had no trouble finishing off the Trojans Saturday.
The Generals had seven different goal scorers as Gardner, Tendler, Duperreault, Boutin, Ty Vallee, Shane Collins and Adam Edmands all scored. Brett Bohlken had three assists and Rykr Cole and Regan Nagy each had a pair of assists.
