In the middle of a tight battle for postseason positioning, the Aberdeen Wings pulled out a tight victory Friday night.

Jibber Kuhl scored 18 seconds into overtime as the Wings grabbed a 3-2 win over Austin at the Odde Ice Center. As a result, Aberdeen remains in third place in the Central Division standings. St. Cloud moved to fourth after a victory, while Austin slipped to fifth, just one point behind with three games remaining.

“We need the points right now,” said Wings coach Scott Langer.

Those three teams are fighting for two remaining playoff positions.

“We’re all fighting for that spot,” Langer said.

After 60 minutes of even hockey, it was Kuhl that provided the game-winner as overtime was just getting started. He chased down a pass from Drew Mackie, beat an Austin defenseman to the puck, and found the back of the net for the goal.

“It was crazy. Mackie made a really good play, made a really good pass. I saw it going down ice,” Kuhl said. “I saw I could beat the D-man. I really just turned on the jets and just flew. I saw five hole open up and I’m like ‘Oh, I’m hitting that,’ so I just banged it home. I got a little lucky, but that’s what it takes in this game.”

Kuhl said he was tired, but found a burst of energy with the game on the line.

“For the boys, I can dig deep for that speed,” Kuhl said. “I can dial in for that.”

It was a unique game in that each squad responded to the other’s lead within seconds of each other.

Austin scored first, before the Wings responded just 17 seconds later for a goal. When Aberdeen took a lead, the Bruins answered back less than a minute later.

“We both responded after goals. Obviously, I didn’t like to give that second one up as quick as we did. That was a little frustrating,” Langer said. “It’s one area that we can still get better on is our management of the game after we score a goal, but we found a way to win and that’s what we needed to do.”

Nick Comfort scored both of Aberdeen’s goals in regulation. After the Wings had fallen behind, Comfort tied the game up almost immediately.

“It’s huge to get the momentum switched there after they scored,” Comfort said. “Have a good shift coming out, luckily able to pot one and tie it up.”

Again, Mackie was involved in a goal-scoring play.

“We had the center ice draw, Mackie carried the puck up and dropped it to me,” Comfort said, “and the rest is history.”

Comfort’s second goal came on a pin-point pass from Matt Wisener late in the second period.

“Wisener wheeled the net and found me creeping down and I was able to go low-blocker,” Comfort said. “A really good pass there.”

Aberdeen was outshot 40-25 in the contest, but goalie Adam Dybal was up to the challenge in the net for the Wings.

“We had really good goaltending tonight. Our defense as a team was pretty good,” Langer said. “They’ve got some guys on their team that can really score and make plays, and I thought we shut them down.”

It was Aberdeen’s defense that helped to pave the way to the crucial victory.

“Our defense was shutting them down. ‘Dybs’ was standing on his head, absolutely standing on his head. It was incredible,” Kuhl said of Dybal. “We just locked it down the second and third and just really took it to them, and I think that’s what won us the game.”

And what a big victory it was for the Wings.

“This is huge, especially against this team we’re fighting against,” Kuhl said. “Absolutely huge win. We needed that.”

The same two teams are back at it tonight with puck drop set for 7:15 at the Odde Ice Center. Again, with just three games remaining and three teams within one point of each other, each game has significant meaning.

“We have to play a solid hockey game again and utilize our whole lineup,” Langer said. “The big difference tonight is we were able to roll four lines and all of our D. We had the energy left in the third period and I thought our third period was really good.”

To see a complete box score of Friday’s game, click on the following link:

https://www.aberdeenwings.com/game-center/?game_id=39409