By Michael Heilman

The Buffalo Beauts send the crowd home happy on Saturday afternoon as they came back to defeat the Connecticut Whale 5-4 in overtime from the Northtown Center in Getzville, NY.

The Beauts did not get off to a good start in the first period as Connecticut Whale’s Jane Morrisette scored on a backhand shot with Jordan Brickner getting an assist on Morrisette’s goal to put the Whales up 1-0. Two minutes later, Morrisette would get her second goal of the game on another backhand shot in a two on one play to extend the Whale’s lead 2-0. Elena Orlando assisted in Morrisette’s goal. The Whales would then take a commanding 3-0 lead on the power play led by Shannon Doyle blasting the shot passed Beauts goalie Mariah Fujimagari with Jordan Brickner getting her second assist of the game. The Whales went to the locker room with a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period.

The Beauts began to chip away the Whale’s lead two minutes and twenty-nine seconds into the second period on the power play when Taylor Accursi rebounded the puck off of the Whale’s goalie Sonjia Shelly to cut the Whale’s lead 3-1. Corinne Buie and Iveta Klimasova were credited with assisting Accursi’s goal. The Beauts were once again on the power play with under nine minutes left in the second period as Lenka Curmova scored with an assist from Brooke Stacey to pull the Beauts within one at 3-2. The game remained 3-2 at the end of the second period.

Four minutes and forty-two seconds into the third period, the Whales were on the power play when Jane Morrisette passed the puck to Sarah Hughson, leaving her on a breakaway goal to put the Whales back up by two at 4-2.

The Beauts would once again go on the power play when Whale’s Shannon Doyle was called for hooking. This would help the Beauts to pull within one 4-3 when Brooke Stacey scored with assists by Erin Gehen and Iveta Klimasova. With under twelve minutes left in the game, the Beauts would tie the game up at 4-4 on a goal by Kim Brown with the assist going to Lenka Brown. The game remained tied 4-4 at the end of the third period sending the game in overtime.

Three minutes and forty-two seconds into overtime, the Whale’s Jordan Brickner was called for hooking, putting the Beauts on the power play. The Beauts would capitalize with under a minute left in overtime as Marie-Jo Pelletier put the game away to send the crowd home happy as the Buffalo Beauts defeated the Connecticut Whales 5-4 in overtime. Corinne Buie was credit with the assist in Pelletier’s goal.

The three stars of the game were Beauts defender Mary-Jo Pelletier with one goal. Beauts forward Iveta Klimasova with two assists and Connecticut defender Shannon Doyle with one goal.

These two teams will go at it again Sunday afternoon at 1:30 pm from the Northtown Center. The game will be on the NWHL’s Twitch channel.