Nicholas Wildgoose scored with 3:52 remaining in overtime to lead the Carolina Jr. Hurricanes past the Nashville Thunder Hockey Club 1-0 at the Coral Springs Sportsplex Sunday morning.

The win gave the Hurricanes the Southeastern District Tier I 16U championship at the tournament sponsored Statewide Amateur Hockey of Florida. Carolina will advance to the Toyota-USA Hockey National Championships on March 26-30 in Amherst, N.Y.

“Ian (O’Rourke) put a nice puck on my stick and I was shooting away hoping I would get it on net,” Wildgoose said following his overtime heroics. “The puck hit my stick just right, and I was able to finally slide one past him.”

The teams played three periods of scoreless hockey, and both goaltenders were on the top of their games. Nashville’s Eric Gordon made several key stops late in the game to keep his team in it.

“It just came down to one team covering a shot in overtime,” Thunder coach Ron Guy said. “I thought that the goaltending on both sides was superb. The two teams were huffing and puffing heading into overtime, and I thought we’d pull it out. Unfortunately it was not our day.”

Canes goalie Marcus Nylander, from Finland, was brilliant between the pipes and stopped an odd-man rush in overtime to keep the game going.

“I had tremendous defense in front of me and I had a lot of help,” Nylander said. “There was no way that I could let my teammates down at the end.”

Hurricanes coach Clay Cotie was pleasantly surprised with the play of his defense and netminder.

“I knew that we were capable of a performance like this, but we played a great hockey team today,” Cotie said. “It really says a lot about your team when you can shut out a team like the one we played today.”

Nashville’s Gordon had some tremendous saves in the third period, especially during a stretch in which the Hurricanes had a 5-3 advantage due to two Thunder penalties. Gordon came up bid despite immense pressure from Perry Winfree and Skylar Brind’Amour.

“He has come up big for us so many times this season,” Guy said. “I just wish that we could have gotten him some goals. He is an outstanding goalie and a heck of a team player.”

The Thunder played most of the game in their own zone and were forcing the Hurricanes to beat them.

“We tried to controls the tempo of the game and it was working,” Guy said. “They just made one play that we didn’t in the overtime.”

Cotie said that his team has been resilient all year.

“This team does not know how to give up. They play hard from the start of the game to the end of the game,” Cotie said. “I am very pleased with the effort and the fact that they kept plugging away and taking good shots until they finally win it in the overtime period.”

Cotie said that his team was banged up going into the tournament and without two skaters who did not go on the trip due to injuries.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.