SAVANNAH, Ga. – The fourth season of hockey in Savannah opened with a hard-fought overtime loss, as the Ghost Pirates fell 4–3 to the Norfolk Admirals on Friday night at Enmarket Arena.
The Admirals struck first when Jaydon Dureau buried a feed from Brady Fleurent from the left faceoff circle to make it 1–0. Grant Hebert picked up the secondary assist on the play. Savannah outshot Norfolk 16–8 in the opening period.
Norfolk extended its lead to 2–0 early in the second when Ben Zloty collected his own blocked pass and backhanded the puck home for an unassisted goal. The Ghost Pirates responded just 31 seconds later when Bryce Brodzinski finished off a 2-on-0 rush from Cristophe Tellier and Dennis Cesana to cut the deficit in half. Norfolk appeared to score again late in the period, but a Jack O’Leary goal was overturned on video review, keeping it 2–1 after two periods.
Savannah tied the game at 1:41 of the third period on a power-play goal from Brodzinski, his second of the night, assisted by Hunter Johannes and Robert Mastrosimone. Norfolk regained the lead when Fleurent converted a Dureau pass on the power play to make it 3–2, with Justin Young also earning an assist.
The Ghost Pirates evened the score again midway through the period when Chris Lipe shoveled home a loose puck off a deflection from Riley Hughes during 4-on-4 play, sending the game to overtime tied 3–3.
In the extra frame, Fleurent capitalized on a rebound from Kristof Papp at 2:18 of overtime to give Norfolk the 4–3 victory. Brehdan Engum was credited with the secondary assist.
Isaac Poulter earned the win for Norfolk with 40 saves on 43 shots, while Evan Cormier turned in a solid performance for Savannah, stopping 20 of 24 in the loss.
The Ghost Pirates return to home ice tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. to face the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. Fans can stream the game live on FloHockey or listen on Mixlr.
-GHOST PIRATES-
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