Nursing a one-goal lead and battling through a long stalemate in the fourth quarter, East Ridge looked as if it had locked up its seventh straight win to start that season.

That’s until sophomore White Bear Lake's Ethan Peterson made himself known someplace other than the faceoff circle.

Connar Dehnert fed the ball to Peterson in the slot, and Peterson somehow got a shot off with four defenders collapsing on him to tie the game with 30 seconds left.

“I was just trying to get it to the net," Peterson said about his tie-breaking goal. "I knew we were down one and had to get us into overtime, and just got lucky with a low shot through his legs.”

That wasn't the end of the drama. Or Peterson.

With 18 seconds remaining in overtime Peterson fired a long-range shot past East Rige goaltender Peyton Bixby to seal the 9-8 win Monday night at East Ridge High School. Both teams had been undefeated in Suburban East Conference play.

Peterson played a limited role his freshman year, buried on the depth chart that included 10 starting seniors and a dominant faceoff man in Nick Truen. Peterson has taken the workload inside the circle this season, but he plays to his own strengths.

“It’s tough, I switched positions to try gaining a stable spot -- I’m small you know -- you gotta get that leverage,” Peterson said. “I decided to drop down on my knee, and it’s been working out for me.”

The game was filled with turnovers and muffed passes that formed huge scrums for ground balls. Long-range sniper Randy Wilson scored the only two goals in the second quarter to give the Raptors the lead at the half.

“We didn’t have school today, so I think our guys took a long time to start up,” said Bears’ head coach Brandon Husak. “They had a really slow start, but we got lucky, got some energy finally to come back.”

Dehnert scored his second and third goals to open the second half and regain the lead for the Bears. Wilson scored his fourth goal with 12 seconds left in the third quarter. Three goals followed to open the fourth quarter as the Raptors’ rallied to steal and put a stranglehold on the momentum until Peterson’s tying goal.

“We kind of anticipated he was going to do really well on faceoffs, and he did,” Husak said. “We knew it was going to be a possession game, and unfortunately we turned the ball over way too much.”

Both goalies traded saves during overtime and, following a point-blank save by Bixby, East Ridge recovered the ball with 44 ticks left on the clock. Kilian Wilson bounced a shot past Will Ramert, but behind the play interference was called on Jack Dwyer, returning the ball to the Bears for a final possession. Then came Peterson’s bonus heroics.

“These guys were undefeated and we took them down,” Peterson said.

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