For the Gators, it was the team’s fourth consecutive win to start the season. The Avalanche knew it would be a tough contest facing the league's No. 1 goaltender in Ben Best, who has been standing on his head for the Gators early in the season. Ben Davidson found out the hard way in the first period as Best made a tremendous glove save off him, a puck Davidson thought was going into the right hand side of the net.
The Gators’ first goal came on a rebound when the Avalanche couldn’t clear the puck away from their goaltender, William Earley.
The Avalanche tied the game at 1-1 midway through the opening period when Cole Godfrey scored for the third time in two games on a backhander in front of the Central Kings net. Godfrey took a nice pass from Joe Bishop. The team then took a 2-1 lead shortly after Earley robbed a Central Kings defender on a wicked glove save. The goal came on a great passing play between Adam Ferguson, Davidson and Tyler Lapierre with Lapierre scoring.
Avon View began the second period with two players in the penalty box for the opening 1:32 and with 58 seconds left on the first penalty, Central Kings scored with two men all alone in front of the net to tie the game at 2-2.
"It appears we’ll have to improve our penalty killing as we took nine to their four penalties, which were definitely a factor in tonight's game," said Avalanche head coach Mark Tye following the loss.
Davidson had six seconds left in his penalty when Central Kings took a cross-checking infraction and when Davidson left the box, he took a pass from the Avalanche blue line and went around a Central Kings defender to make it 3-2 Avon View. Lapierre netted his second of the game to put the Avalanche up 4-2 before Avalanche defenseman Mitchell Singer was given a two-minute minor for spearing and a 10-minute misconduct.
It only took Central Kings 29 seconds on the power play to move to within a goal.
The scoring slowed down until six minutes were left in the game, when a flurry of activity resulted in Avalanche goaltender Earley losing his goal stick and Josh Foster of the Gators taking an initial shot, which Earley saved before the rebound beat him to his glove side.
The teams went four-on-four in overtime and the Avalanche controlled the opening two minutes of play before Godfrey was assessed a four-minute minor for head contact, leaving the Avalanche short-handed for the duration of overtime.
The Avalanche hung on and pushed the game into a shoot-out, but on five shots Central Kings scored the lone goal.
Avalanche notes
• The club will play only one game this weekend when it hosts the Bridgewater Vikings in a 7 p.m. start Nov. 1 at the Hants Exhibition Arena. It’s a club the team defeated 7-4 on the road on the South Shore Oct. 24.
• The Avalanche actually finished 1-2 at the West Kings Tournament two weekends ago as the team defeated Amherst 9-0 in the final round-robin game with a shortened bench.
• It will be a race to the wire for the top four playoff spots in the league if the early season is any indication. The Avalanche own a 2-1-1 record for five points and fifth place in League standings, three points back of the 4-0-0 Central Kings Gators and two behind the second place 3-0-1 Parkview Panthers. Forrest Heights occupies third place at 3-0-0 and Horton fourth place with a 3-2-0 record, both teams having six points.
