Overtime is Brock Saatzer's time.
On Jan. 22, the Brainerd senior scored in overtime in the season opener to saddle the Anoka-Hennepin Mustangs with a 7-6 loss.
In Tuesday's North Conference game at Riverside Elementary, it was Saatzer thwarting the Mustangs again, this time 2:04 into overtime to give Brainerd a 6-5 win and enable the Warriors remain unbeaten.
Saatzer took a pass from Devin Annable, who also set him up for the game-winner in the opener, and snapped in the game-winner from about 25 feet.
"It's very exhilarating to say the least," Saatzer said of beating the Mustangs twice with overtime goals.
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"I couldn't do it without my teammates," he added. "They were on their game today and so was I. It just happened that I got it again."
Saatzer finished with two goals and three assists.
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Warriors 6, Anoka-Hennepin 5 ot
- The key: Brock Saatzer scored 2:04 into overtime to give Brainerd the win
- Conference: Brd 6-0-0, AH 1-3-0.
- Overall: Brd 6-0-0, AH 1-3-0.
- Next: Brainerd at Maple Grove 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
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"He knows it's his senior year. He's really giving it his all," Warriors coach Todd Person said of Saatzer. "We've asked him to do some things that we haven't in the past with some of the lines we're doing and things like that. He's really stepped up for us this year. It's been great to see."
The victory lifted Brainerd to 6-0 in the North and overall with four regular-season games remaining.
"Thankfully it turned out as it did at the end because we needed this win to hold the position as the top seed coming out of the North," Person said.
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Cody Vleck scored two goals and collected an assist for Brainerd. Annable scored a goal and notched two assists. Jacob Heinlen scored a goal and assisted on another.
The contest was tied five times - twice in the first period, 3-3 in the second and twice in the third.
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Saatzer's first goal at 5:41 of the third appeared that it might give Brainerd the edge for keeps but the Mustangs' Tyler Ezell responded at 9:56 to send the game into a 5-minute extra session. Late in the third, the Warriors survived two consecutive penalties that left them short two players for a time.
"It was definitely a different game than we had down there," Person said. "Down there we were up 6-2 and lost the lead. They tied it 6-6 and we came back in overtime.
"They were ready to play for sure today. We weren't at the start. We were kind of sluggish and not doing what we needed to do. I thought we looked a lot better in the second period then we just kept giving it back to them every chance we had to get up on them. We put in a goal off one of our own players and it just went from there."
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The Warriors are 6-0 for the first time since 1995-96, their first year as a sanctioned Minnesota State High School League varsity program.
"I'm thinking No. 1 place," Saatzer said. "Championship game here we come."
Anoka-Hennepin 2 1 2 0 - 5
Brainerd 2 1 2 1 - 6
First period: AH-Joey Manion (Kai France) 3:12; Brd-Jacob Heinlen (Cody Vleck, Brock Saatzer) 4:05; AH-Joey Manion (Hana France) 5:42: Brd-Vleck (Saatzer, Devin Annable) ppg 7:34
Second period: Brd-Vleck (Saatzer, Heinlen) 2:03; AH-Joey Manion 11:09
Third period: Brd-Annable :41; AH-Kai France (Joey Manion) 2:41; Brd-Saatzer (Annable) 5:41; AH-Tyler Ezell (Joey Manion) 9:56
Overtime: Brd-Saatzer 2:04
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Shots on goal: Brd 5-7-4-16, AH 4-4-7-15
Goalies: Brd-Zach Denny (10 saves); AH-Ben Schmitz (9 saves)
MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5861. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bertsballpark .
