GF Tribune: Johnson lifts Americans in 2OT
GF Tribune: Johnson lifts Americans in 2OT
By Steve Schreck, sschreck@greatfallstribune.com
March 17, 2016
The mindset was this: play “simple” hockey.
That’s what the Great Falls Americans tried to do in the overtime periods here at the Great Falls IcePlex Thursday night against the Bozeman IceDogs.
Jesse Johnson did it perfectly.
He bolted down the right side and, from a bad angle, threw the puck in front of the Bozeman net for the game-winner 1:29 into double overtime for a 2-1 victory.
Ricards Bernhards, who crashed the net and appeared to have deflected it, was credited with the goal, but he said he never touched it.
“Jesse got that goal,” Bernhards said afterward. “It went straight in from the far side. That was straight Jesse.”
Johnson’s goal was exactly what head coach Jeff Heimel was preaching.
“Be simple,” he said. “The simpler we can get pucks out and get going north and south, the less we leave ourselves open to a fatigue issue or a turnover, something like that. It showed toward the last five minutes of the first overtime where we tried to get a little too cute and they came back and had a few opportunities. Just simple. Their goalie played great, and their whole team played great, but just stay at it. Don’t deviate from the plan.” Read More>
