It took an overtime period but the Orangeville District Secondary School Bears boys’ hockey team won number six for the season when they dispatched the St. James Lions 4-3 at Tony Rose arena on Tuesday, December 15.

The third frame ended with a 3-3 tie forcing a five minute overtime period.

With just over a minute left in the OT period, the Bears were awarded a penalty shot when forward Trevor Nevidomskis was tripped from behind when he was on a clear breakaway and heading for the Lions goal.

Nevidomskis made good on the attempt and the game ended with a Bears win.

“Everyone’s counting on you to win it with such little time left in overtime. We probably would have tied it if I didn’t score so there was a lot of pressure on me, but I felt confident,” Nevidomskis said after the game of taking the penalty shot.

After going down 1-0 early in the first period the Bears tied it up on a goal from Kyle Waters when the ODDS team was on a powerplay.

Waters did it again with 3:25 left in the first period when he scored to make it a 2-1 game.

Returning for the second period the Bears had a man in the box early in the frame but successfully played the penalty kill.
St. James tied the game at two with a quick move across the front of the net to score.

They followed up with another goal on a shot from the point that hit the crossbar and bounced down into the Bears goal.

Trevor Nevidomskis got the goal that tied the game at three with a shot that went off the St. James goalie’s glove and into the net.

When the teams returned for the final period of play it was a back and forth game that had both teams turning it up a notch in and effort to get the go ahead goal.

St. James took a penalty with 1:36 left on the clock giving the Bears a powerplay opportunity but the buzzer sounded to end regulation time before they could put one to the back of the Lions’ net.

The teams returned for a five minute overtime period that ended when Nevidomskis was tripped on the break-away and awarded the penalty shot.

“They gave us a tough one. We came out a little slow and that hurt us at the start,”Nevidomskis said.” I was definitely a rough start. It was one of our worst games of the year. I think our powerplay did a lot for us in that game. Even when we didn’t score it got a lot of momentum going for us going forward in the game. There was a lot of frustration on the bench but we kept out heads up and kept going strong and ended up getting the win. We’ve got to re-group and get ourselves back on track. We’ll take a break over Christmas and come back hard in the new year.”

The win places the bears at the top of the District 4 / 10 standings and they are the only undefeated team this year. They have six wins and one tie behind them.

The squad from Central Wellington District High School is in second place with a 6-1 record.

The team will get a break over the Christmas holidays then return to home ice at Tony Rose arena on Tuesday, January 5, to host Our Lady of Lourdes.

The puck drop for that game is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.