Hull Seahawks earned a hard-fought 4-3 overtime victory over Bristol Pitbulls at Hull Ice Arena on Sunday afternoon, Johnny Corneil scoring the decisive goal at 60:49 from Jordan Stallard's assist to complete a comeback from 2-0 down and extend Hull's excellent recent form to four wins from five.
Bristol led twice and were in control for much of the first period, but Hull's resilience — scoring twice in the second period and once more in the third to force overtime — tells the story of a home side that refused to let the match go.
Lipsey scores twice in four minutes — same combination, same result
Bristol established early control. Mason Lipsey opened the scoring at 14:33 — Dunbar and Bricknell assisting — and scored again at 18:05 with an identical assist combination: Dunbar and Bricknell again. Two goals in 3 minutes and 32 seconds, both from exactly the same trio. Hull had penalised Bonner for slashing at 10:48 but killed it off, and the first period ended 0-2 to the visitors.
The Lipsey-Dunbar-Bricknell triangle scoring twice from the same combination is a rare enough occurrence to note. It reflects a line that knew exactly where to find each other and executed it twice without variation.
Hull fight back — Bristol go ahead again
Hull pulled one back at 31:13 through Bonner — Hodgkinson and Hewitt assisting — but Bristol's goalkeeper change at 29:08 (Nappier coming on, having briefly gone off at 29:00 for an extra skater before returning immediately) was followed by Hodgkinson's hooking penalty at 29:08 that Bristol couldn't convert. Bonner's goal levelled it at 1-2 early in the second period.
Bricknell then scored unassisted for Bristol at 40:54 to restore their lead at 3-1, and Hull's third period needed to produce two goals against a side that had won Saturday's overtime thriller at home against Telford.
Hull level it — overtime decides
Crawley scored for Hull at 55:45 from Hehir's assist to make it 3-2, and Bristol called their timeout at 59:53 with under a minute left. The timeout — taken while Bristol were protecting a one-goal lead — reflects an awareness that Hull were pushing hard. They were right to be concerned: Corneil had been penalised for delay of game at 44:26 earlier in the third period but his chance to atone came in overtime, finishing at 60:49 from Stallard to complete Hull's comeback.
Aleksanteri Heiskanen was solid in the Hull goal throughout. Tommy Nappier started for Bristol with his mid-game withdrawal and return in the second period, but conceded the key goals in the third period and overtime.
Both sides' contexts
For Hull, four wins from five coming in and this is their second consecutive win, following Friday's 3-1 away victory at Sheffield. Corneil has now scored in three straight matches. For Bristol, this is a narrow defeat 24 hours after Saturday's magnificent overtime win over Telford — the result of a team riding high on emotion and finding it difficult to sustain for back-to-back away matches.