Mitchell's Alex Loes scored a game-tying, third period goal, but the Pierre Capitols recovered to beat the Mitchell Marlins 5-4 in overtime when Brandon Heckenlaible deflected a puck into the top right corner of the net.
The game-winner for the Capitals came with 3:58 left in the extra period, and denied the Marlins the chance to win just their second league game of the season. Pierre won its second straight game and improved to 4-6-0-1.
"It's very tough," said Mitchell coach John Lord, whose team dropped to 1-8-0-1. "We lost it on the scoreboard, but I'd definitely say we dominated the entire game. We outshot them the entire game, but I'm still trying to keep their spirits up."
Lord was right in that Mitchell controlled the puck for much of the night, and had most of the game's best scoring chances. In fact, the Marlins nearly doubled the Capitals in shots during regulation, 34-18, but still found themselves in overtime.
"We just couldn't finish," Lord said. "We had several opportunities in the high slot in goal scoring opportunities, and we just couldn't put them in. The opportunities were there. It was total domination."
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Stephen Bollinger, Pierre's leading scorer who came in with six goals all year, scored three in Friday's game alone, including the game's first goal -- a power play tally with only two seconds left in the first period.
Less than a minute into the second period, however, Mitchell forward Cade Hearnen tied the game on a breakaway goal. Alex Loes and Jesse Hanssen assisted on the goal, Hearnen's third of the year.
Bollinger added his second goal -- another power play goal at 6:34 of the second -- to put his team back in front, though only briefly. Only 16 seconds later, Cole Bruscher scored another power play goal for the Marlins on an assist from Zach Gebhart to knot the score once again.
The Marlins suffered a number of defensive breakdowns later in the second period, letting Pierre take a two-goal advantage. Bollinger completed his hat trick with a goal at 11:35 of the second period, and Joseph Wieseler gave Pierre a 4-2 lead less than 30 seconds later.
"Pretty much the whole game we had some defensive breakdowns," Lord said. "We kept trying to correct it, but we were leaving open guys in front of the net. They were cycling guys down in front of the net and we were having a hard time covering them. That's why they were able to put some away."
Instead of letting Pierre run away with the game, however, Mitchell's Brandon Gronseth scored on a rebound with 4:29 left in the period, cutting the deficit to 4-3 going into the third.
That allowed Loes to tie the game with his power play goal 7:37 into the third period. Neither team was able to score again until Pierre notched the game-winner in overtime.
Mitchell ended up outshooting Pierre 38-24. Mitchell goalie Dillon Miles made 19 saves; Pierre goalie Chris Johnson stopped 34 shots.
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Mitchell and Pierre will square off again today at 11:30 a.m., and Lord hopes his team will be able to finish more of its scoring chances today.
"We actually had practice (Friday) morning and worked on shooting," Lord said. "If we can't clean it up by (today) we'll clean it up all next week. If we play another game like (Friday) and keep pounding away on their goalie, they'll start going in."
