Nobody can argue that Lakeland Eagles’ sniper Jerry Cunningham doesn’t have a flare for the dramatics. That much became evident on the evening of Jan. 23 at H.W. Fish Arena in McLennan when the rising North Peace Hockey League star broke a 4-4 tie against the visiting High Prairie Regals in a thrilling overtime shootout win for the Eagles. Cunningham’s heroics during the game were noticeable in more ways than one. He was also responsible for scoring a short-handed marker near the midway point of the opening period which came just 34 seconds after High Prairie capitalized on the power-play while Al Anderson was serving two minutes in the sin-bin for delay of game. The game, which attracted a substantial crowd of supporters, saw the Regals draw first blood on a goal from Tim Cunningham just 1:33 into the contest. Lakeland would respond just under five minutes later, however, when Daniel Belcourt beat Regals’ goaltender Cannon Cunningham on a pretty three-way passing play from Jeff Taylor and James Tallman to tie the game at 1-1. Regals’ sniper Tyler Shantz got that one back at 11:15 of the period on an unassisted power-play marker before J. Cunningham took the wind out of the opposition’s sails with his shorthanded effort from Todd Holt and goaltender Rod Branch. The two teams remained in a deadlock until the 3:19 mark of the middle frame when defenseman Craig VandeLigt made the most of a feed from Matt Hunter to give Lakeland its first lead of the game at 3-2. But the never-say-die Regals rebounded just over four minutes later on a goal from Brad McNabb to knot things up at 3-3. It stayed that way until the 16:09 mark of the final period when Anderson got the go-ahead goal at 16:09 with assists going to Dustin Kersey and Shawn Brekker. The celebration was short-lived, however, as Shantz worked his magic once again, beating Branch with 95 seconds left to force a five-minute sudden death overtime period which saw neither team score the winner.