Adam Sinclair scored two unassisted goals as the London Nationals beat the Cyclones at Listowel Friday night 4-3 in overtime.
The Nationals draw first blood in the OHA Sutherland Cup semifinals in a back-and-forth affair for both teams. London head coach Pat Powers says it was refreshing to get the first game at Listowel's unique rink.
"I thought our guys adjusted well," says Powers. "Now that we have one game under our belt in this rink, hopefully it will help us out the next time we're here."
Richard Whittaker broke the scoreless tie for London at 12:24 in the first period, and the score remained 1-0 at the first break. Each team was penalized once in the frame. Jamie Huber went to the sin bin once for Listowel while the Nationals' Liam Fordy went for boarding, plus a ten-minute misconduct.
The Cyclones scored two back-to-back goals in the second period to give them their only lead of the game. Ben VanOoteghem tied the game at 3:41, then Chayse Herrfort put Listowel in the lead later in the period. London, however, tied it up before the end of the stanza when Sinclair scored his first goal of the game, for a 2-2 score after 40 minutes of play.
Sinclair scored again just after two minutes of the third period for a Nationals 3-2 lead, but the Cyclones struck back later in the final frame when Danny Skinner found the net. Brandon Glover had the overtime winner with just over three minutes remaining in the extra period.
Cameron Zanussi was the winner in goal for London, stopping 36 out of 39 Cyclone shots. Brock Baier had the loss in net for Listowel, collecting 30 saves.
The Nationals had a long layoff going into the semifinals, but Powers was confident the team would be sharp.
"It was nice for our guys to get back into a game and I thought our guys did well," says Powers. "We knew Listowel was going to come out and really take it to us at the start of the game, and we knew they are a really disciplined team and that scoring chances for us would be at a minimum, so we had to take advantage of what we got."
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is at the Western Fair Centre Saturday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30pm and the action can be heard on cknx.ca.