Oilers rally from deficit to defeat Redbirds 6-3 behind Cole Ford hat trick
EAST ALTON – Thursday night's Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association game at East Alton Ice Arena was the kind of matchup most fans don't get to see much of.
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Two backyard rivals – Alton and East Alton-Wood River – clashed before an enthusiastic crowd. It was a spirited, back-and-forth game between the two teams.
But in the end, a Cole Ford hat trick proved to be the difference as the Oilers rallied from a one-goal deficit to defeat the Redbirds 6-3.
“It was a good one; it was good to get our first win,” said Oiler coach John Helmkamp. “It the first time (the Oilers) have beaten Alton in a long time and I'm proud of the guys; it did look like early on that Alton had control but we battled through and I'm really proud of what they did tonight.”
Ford's hat trick was a mark of the EA-WR offense. “Cole leads our offense,” Helmkamp said. “He's maybe one of the best players in the league and he came to play tonight; it showed.
“The other guys benefited from it too; we had a couple of other guys – Kaleb Harrop, who's a freshman, played a really good game, and Jacob Vassos scored two tonight and that's good for him. And we've got a goalie (Tyler Hamby) who's played four or five games (filling in for Blake Stone, who is recovering from a broken leg suffered during football season). Our all-star goalie (Stone) should be back in the next 3-4 weeks, but Tyler Hamby was great tonight and he deserved this win; the team was trying to win it for him.”
The Redbirds did take control early on; they took the lead just 2:49 into the game when, on a two-man advantage, Austin Erthal took a pass from Joe Boevingloh and fired a shot that beat Hamby for a quick 1-0 lead. The Oilers countered 78 seconds later when Ford took possession and rushed up ice to beat Redbird netminder Caleb Currie to forge a 1-1 tie. Things stayed that way until there was 2:42 left, when Erthal got his second goal, this time from a Tanner St. Peters assist, to give the Redbirds a 2-1 lead through the first 14 minutes.
EA-WR didn't let that stop them; Harrop re-tied the game on a Ford assist just 12 seconds into the second period, but the Redbirds retook the lead on another two-man advantage when St. Peters scored from Brandon Lang for a 3-2 Alton lead.
Undaunted, the Oilers – still a man short – tied the game again when Vassos scored from a Harrop assist with 11:47 left in the period. Things then settled down for a bit until Ford again raced up-ice on a breakaway, deked and scored with 3:57 left in the period to put the Oilers up for the first time at 4-3.
The third period remained tight; both teams had good scoring opportunities but couldn't solve Hamby or Currie. The Redbirds pulled Currie with under a minute left for a sixth attacker in an effort to draw level, but Ford got ahold of a loose puck in the Oiler end and fired the length of the ice into the goal to seal the game with 36.7 seconds left; Vassos also scored with 27.1 seconds to go from assists from Bryce Bazzell and Harrop.
Both teams had 33 shots on goal, with Hamby recording 30 saves and Currie 27 saves.
The Oilers next face O'Fallon at 8:40 p.m. Monday at Granite City's Wilson Park Ice Rink, while the Redbirds' next game comes against Columbia at 8:45 p.m. Monday at East Alton.
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