Central wins Gambucci Cup with overtime goal against Red River

In one of the tightest Gambucci Cup races since the traveling trophy was started in 2003, it was only fitting the Cup's home this year wasn't decided until overtime of the final Greater Grand Forks matchup.

Zack Murphy found Parker Stroh on a 2-on-1 rush at 5 minutes, 10 seconds of overtime to lift Grand Forks Central to a 2-1 win over Grand Forks Red River on Saturday afternoon at Purpur Arena.

Family of the late Serge Gambucci delivered the Gambucci Cup to Central. The Knights won the Cup for the second straight year and for the seventh time overall.

"Obviously, Serge was a longtime coach here and it's a big honor to win it for him and keep it in our locker room," Stroh said.

The deciding play started in the Red River zone when Cole Hanson picked up a loose puck and blindly whirled around to bank the puck off the side wall for Murphy, who had broken free near the blue line.

With Stroh racing to join the play, Murphy found his teammate backdoor. With Red River goalie Nate Bradbury sliding over to square up to the rushing forward, Stroh moved the puck to his backhand and into the net.

"It was just great patience on both players' parts," Central coach Grant Paranica said.

The Knights needed a bit of a comeback to knock off the Roughriders as Red River goalie Nate Bradbury finished with a career-high 37 saves. A Red River goalie hasn't had to make 37 saves since Bryan Nies did it in a 3-2 loss to Fargo South in 2010.

"(Bradbury) kept us in it," Red River coach Bill Chase said. "We had some guys playing not to lose, and you usually lose when you do that. We played OK, but they were all over us in every zone. We have to get back to the drawing board a little bit."

Red River sophomore Dane Montgomery started the scoring in the second period with a goal off a Tyler Savage shot.

Central didn't get on the board until a Murphy power-play goal at 11:49 of the third period. Murphy's shot from the left faceoff circle navigated traffic to beat Bradbury for the first time.

"That's two games in a row now (Bradbury) has played well against us," Paranica said. "We talked about keeping at it. We didn't need to make any big changes because we were getting quality opportunities."

Central not only won the Gambucci Cup but gained the driver's seat for the No. 1 seed in the East Region tournament. The Knights are now 15-1-2 overall and 11-0-2 in the conference. Red River is 13-2-2 overall and 10-1-2 in the conference.

"Red River battled to the end and made it a tough game," Murphy said. "I'm just glad we were able to put it away."