The only thing that really held Blue Ridge back against Cape Henry in an 8-7 double overtime victory Friday were penalties — 13 of them on the Barons to the Dolphins’ three.
Blue Ridge overcame three illegal stick penalties (a three-minute unreleaseable call) including one after Cape Henry tied the game at 7-7 that required the Barons to kill the penalty over the final two minutes and 17 seconds of regulation and first 43 seconds of overtime. Blue Ridge’s man-down unit managed the task and finally, in the second overtime, Garrett Chan unleashed a goal to lift the Barons to a victory over Cape Henry, a squad they beat last season in the Division II state quarterfinals. Both are now competing in Division I.
An incredible 25-save effort by Blue Ridge goalie Andrew Wilson held the day for the Barons, helping the penalty killing group minimize the damage of nine minutes of unreleasable penalties.
Blue Ridge has been pretty prolific offensively on the year, but Cape Henry’s defense managed to slow down the Barons.
“They did a really good job of locking up our top couple of guys,” said Blue Ridge coach Nic Bell.
Still, Chan managed to finish with three goals and two of them were particularly timely. His second put Blue Ridge up 7-6 and the last tally was the gamewinner in the second overtime.
“He’s a really explosive lefty and he scored a lot off ball, just cutting to the goal,” Bell said.
Blue Ridge plays on the road against Highland this week in another rematch with a team the Barons faced in the playoffs in 2010.
