Nick Wagner was already in the midst of a great night, but it almost didn't matter. His Carlisle/Cedar Cliff team was losing late at Twin Ponds East Wednesday night to CPIHL Tier III rival Middletown/CD East.
A time out with less than two minutes to play by head coach Ryan Brown, with his "Thundering Colts" down two, changed that.
"He told me to score," Wagner said.
Nuff said. Wagner delivered twice in the final 1:38, including a gift-wrapped equalizer with 49 ticks left, to salvage a wild 7-7 tie with Middletown/CD East and complete a double hat trick in the process.
Wagner's six goals weren't enough to book a win, but second-place Carlisle/Cedar Cliff (8-1-2, 18 points) managed to salvage a point against front-running Middletown/East (9-3-1, 19) when it looked as though that wasn't in the cards. And that's a whole lot better than a five-goal loss.
Down 7-5, Wagner took a home run pass on the tape from Shane Kubik in the neutral zone, split the D and buried it past goalie Robbie Allen with 1:38 left.
Just 49 seconds later, with 49 seconds left, the puck rolled in on Allen, who attempted to clear as Wagner bore down on him. The puck skidded awkwardly off the front end of Allen's stick and right to Wagner, who shot it into the gaping net to tie it.
"It was definitely unexpected," Wagner said. "It just rolled right to me. I knew I had to tie the game and I did."
Allen is barely six months into his hockey career but didn't play like it -- he made several fine stops late against a swarming and desperate Carlisle/Cedar Cliff club. The easiest one of the night, unfortunately, is the one that got away.
"That team, they've kind of had our number all season," Middletown/East head coach Jeff Dukes said. "It was an unfortunate bounce at the end and unfortunate to give that extra point up, but I'm happy to still come out of with a tie."
On a night Wagner potted six, he wasn't even the best player on the ice for the first 40 minutes.
That honor went to Middletown/East's Zach Strachan, who was an absolute beast – scoring three times and assisting on two others as his club erased a 4-2 deficit with a four-goal second to grab a 6-4 lead through two periods. Strachan's finest moment came on an assist.
Tied at 4 late in the stanza, Strachan stripped a Thundering Colts defenseman of the puck with a big hit and superb stick work in the right corner and found Justin Temple streaming in from the left wing for a brilliant one-timer and a 5-4 lead.
Temple, the West Perry product, had a hat trick as well and assisted on two of Strachan's markers.
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