AOTW: Henriquez, Stimple lead Wolverines in OT thriller against Chippewa

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - For a large part of Friday’s game at the Sullivan Arena, things looked bleak.

Amidst a 2-2 game in the second period against the Chippewa Steel, the Anchorage Wolverines found themselves without their starting goaltender after losing Vaughn Makar in a collision with another player that pushed him out of the match.

“Unfortunately, Vaughn — or the guy that started for us after he got bumped by the player there on that penalty — he wasn’t feeling too great,” Wolverines head coach Nick Walters said. “I had no choice but to go to our backup.”

To make matters worse, the results on the scoreboard had also deteriorated. Anchorage found itself trailing by two scores entering the third and final period.

And yet, that didn’t affect the next man up.

“I prepare like I’m playing, even if I’m not,” backup netminder Roberto Leonardo Henriquez said.

Stepping between the pipes ahead of the game’s final 20 minutes, Henriquez left the bench with a message to his teammates.

“I was like, ‘Hey boys I got you, just you deliver for me. I’ll deliver for you,” Henriquez said.

And deliver he did. Henriquez didn’t allow a single puck past him, finishing a perfect third period with 15 saves off 15 shot attempts.

“Going in cold, that’s never an easy job to do and he was outstanding,” Walters said.

Later, thanks to a pair of mid-period shots from Taisetsu Ushio and Samuel Evert, the Wolverines were back in it, tying things up at four goals apiece.

That score would remain in overtime, pushing things to a shootout.

“What I love about this team is we always keep fighting and we kept playing,” team captain Jackson Stimple said. “We were able to claw our way back in it.”

With one shot the only thing separating Anchorage from another tally in the win column, Stimple ensured that effort was not for nothing.

“I got to give kudos to my assistant, Sam Graham. I worked through the guys that I had on my card and I was like, ‘Who do you want next?’ and he‘s like ‘I think Stimple wants it,’” Walters recalled.

With a flick of the stick, Stimple snuck his shot right down Broadway, scoring the game-ending shot for the Wolverines and triggering the Sullivan to erupt into a sea of cheers and horns.

“In pressure situations like that, you just go back to what you practice. I work on that move all the time and I’m pretty confident with it,” Stimple said. “I just went out there and did what I’ve done a million times.”

The Wolverines finished off the weekend sweep against the Steel the following night, winning 4-1.

Anchorage returns home next week for a three-game series against the Minnesota Wilderness. Game 1 is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m.

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