The Grandview Steelers played a bit of rope-a-dope with North Vancouver in the opening game of their Pacific Junior Hockey League conference final.
The junior B Steelers spotted the league champion Wolf Pack the first three goals and then roared back, taking the lead with four goals in the second period before adding two unanswered tallies in the final frame to upset North Van 6-3 in the first game of their best-of-seven series at the Harry Jerome rec centre on Tuesday.
North Vancouver took a 3-0 lead after just two minutes of the second frame, but Jordan Hall got one back on a power play on assists from game stars Timothy Chow and Adam Rota to spark the Grandview comeback.
Chow, Lucas Mercer and Rota, with the go-ahead marker, scored one goal apiece in a four-minute span midway through the period to take the lead.
Cole MacInnes gave way to backup Nicholas Anderson following North Van’s third goal and the 19-year-old rookie import stoned his former Wolf Pack teammates the rest of the way, stopping all 21 shots on goal.
Ian Prevost tallied a backbreaking unassisted goal at the halfway mark of the third period. Matteo Belmonte iced the win with a goal into an empty net in the final minutes.
Game 2 of the Tom Shaw conference final is at the Harry Jerome centre on Saturday at 7 p.m. The series moves to the Burnaby Winter Club for games 3 and 4. The first is on Sunday at 4 p.m. Game 4 is the following Wednesday at 7:15 p.m.
