Saad nets both goals in 3-2 loss
BELLEVILLE, ON -- The Saginaw Spirit suffered a 3-2 overtime loss to the Belleville Bulls Saturday night, with the single point garnered from the overtime loss giving Saginaw 15 points and a record of 7-2-1-0.
The Spirit enter tomorrow’s 6:05 PM contest against the Oshawa Generals leading the OHL West Division.
The second period saw scoring aplenty following a scoreless first frame. Bulls center Richard Panik scored unassisted to open scoring at 8:17 in the second, giving Belleville a one goal advantage. Saginaw’s Brandon Saad responded with two quick goals in the period, the first coming unassisted at 15:24. Saad gave the Spirit the lead with a goal at the 19:42 mark from winger Jordan Szwarz and defenseman Joe Underwood. The two teams exited the second period with the Spirit up 2-1.
Belleville’s Panik stole the show in the later part of the game, starting with his game tying, unassisted goal at 12:37 in the third period. After a back-and-forth battle sent the tied game into overtime, Panik would score in the final two seconds of the game to seal the Belleville victory. The game winning goal came at 4:58 into overtime, with the lone assist being awarded to defenseman Steven Strong.
Saginaw netminder Tadeas Galansky tallied 30 saves on 33 shots to earn the game’s third star honors, with Belleville goalie Malcolm Subban earning 24 saves on 26 shots.
