PACAN FENDS OFF ELMIRA COMEBACK WITH DRAMATIC LATE GAME WINNER 

BRAMPTON, ONTARIO – David Pacan sent the Powerade Centre crowd into a frenzy on Thursday night, as he lit the lamp with only 4.1 seconds remaining in the third period to propel the Brampton Beast to a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Elmira Jackals.

Pacan wasn’t the only David to score a goal on this exciting night as David Vallorani and David Ling each found the back of the net for the Beast who extended their winning streak against the Jackals to six games.

The Beast got off to a fast start in this contest as a result of their offense getting an early jump on the Jackals blueliners. The Beast controlled the play and outshot the Sabres’ affiliate 16-9 in the first 20 minutes.

Working the counter-attack up the ice, Vallorani, Chris Leveille and Lucas Venuto passed the puck around with a series of crisp tape-to-tape passes. The trio of forwards created a one-on-one situation for the 2017 ECHL All-Star to fake out his defender and take a big a slap shot from the top of the slot, beating Jackals starter Jason Kasdorf top shelf at 15:30 for his 19th tally of the year.

Pacan pushed the Beast lead to 2-0 late in the first period with his first goal of the night. The big power forward fought through a crowd of defenders and located the loose puck in front of Kasdorf and banged home a rebound at 19:29, with Connor Crisp and Christian Weidauer assisting on the goal, giving the Beast a two-goal lead heading into the first intermission.

Early in the second period, Elmira’s penalty trouble caught up with them giving the Beast a prime opportunity to score.

With the Beast on a 5-on-3 power play, Ling deflected a Reggie Traccitto point shot into the back of the net just 38 seconds into the second period, giving Ling his fourth goal of the season and pushing the Beast lead to 3-0.

Scoring chances for the Jackals were few and far between in the first two periods. However, the Jackals capitalized on their few scoring chances to bring the game back to within a score by the end of the middle frame.

Matt Lane found a rebound in front of the Beast net to score the Jackals’ first goal at 7:20 of the second period and Kenton Miller fired a puck from the slot past a screened Beast starter Zach Fucale after cutting to the middle on a 2-on-1 counterattack rush at 13:16 of the middle period.

Elmira’s persistence paid off in the third after Davis Vandane’s slap shot muscled its way past Fucale on a shot from the left wing at 8:27 to even up game at three goals apiece.

With the game seemingly destined for extra time, the Beast’s game winning goal came off a strong late push into the Elmira zone.

With the clock winding down, Jordan Henry and Chris Auger got in on the forecheck, creating a battle for the puck in the corner. As Henry gained control of the puck off a pass from Auger along the right wing boards, Pacan snuck his way behind his man to the front of the net and buried the game winner into the wide-open cage with just 4.1 seconds remaining on the time-clock, giving the Beast faithful a dramatic home victory.

Zach Fucale stopped 32 of 35 shots to earn the victory for Brampton, while Kasdorf finished his night with the loss and 32 stops.