Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

MASSENA -- The Snake Island Muskies traded leads with the Caughnawaga Indians and pulled off a last-minute victory at Massena Arena on Wednesday, May 24.

The Muskies started on strong note, shutting out the Indians in the first period. Lee Thomas scored both goals at 6:40 and 15:54, with assists from Kariwate Mitchell and Trysten Thomas. The Indians outscored the Muskies in the second period, but were still not able to pull ahead. Chad Norton punched in both Caughnawaga markers at 3:32 and 8:45, with assists going to Zack Zachary, Sam Norton and Garrett Cree. With the score tied 2-2, Thomas restored the Muskies lead at 13:31 with an assist from Nagleri Laffin. The game was put on hold toward the end of the second period. Referee Eric Laughing was injured while attempting to break up a fight between two players. He was helped out of the arena and replaced with a substitute. After the game, Laughing said he twisted his knee and did not think it was a serious injury. The Muskies' Carl Von Every was cited two minutes for unnecessary roughness and an Indians player was ejected for game misconduct. The player's identity was not clear from the post-game statistics.

The Muskies' Brandon Bradley eyes a loose ball.

Caughnawaga managed to pull ahead in the third period, setting the stage for a dramatic Muskies rally and win. Atha Lazore put Snake Island up 4-2 just 34 seconds into the stanza, assisted by Thomas and Mitchell. Then came the Indians rally. Norton (unassisted), Cree (assisted by Kanathonson Horn-David) and Mathew Peterson (assisted by Hank Delisle and Norton), all between 1:26 and 7:00. With less than five minutes to go, Mitchell got ahold of the ball behind the net and ran around toward the goalie's stick side, but he picked up a defender along the way. With his back to the net, Mitchell with one hand tossed the ball around the back of his head without looking and found the back of the Caughnawaga net. Twenty-one seconds later, Mitchell produced what could be described as nearly a carbon copy of his previous play. He picked up the ball behind the net, ran around to the stick side, picked up a defender and casually tossed the ball around the back of his head without looking, bringing the contest to 6-5 Muskies. Twenty seconds later, Thomas connected for what would hold up as the game-winning goal, on a play set up by Ross Cree and Mitchell. Jozef Cheetham managed a final goal for Caughnawaga, assisted by Norton with just over a minute left in regulation, but the Snake Island defense would hold up until the final buzzer.