OLIVER PAIPOONGE – Come playoff time, it’s every man-up.
On Sunday night, it was the fourth line that stepped up and has the Kam River Fighting Walleye on the brink of a first Superior International Junior Hockey League championship.
The Walleye, who edged the Thunder Bay North Stars 4-3 in Game 5 an overflowing Norwest Arena to take a 3-2 series lead, can capture the best-of-seven Bill Salonen Cup final on Monday night at Fort William Gardens, a far cry from their outlook after dropping the first two games of the series on home ice.
The Game 5 win marked the first time in the final that the home team secured victory.
It couldn’t have come at a better time, said fourth-line forward Kennan Reyelts who scored the Fighting Walleye’s second goal, on a delayed penalty call with seven minutes to go in the first, then made it 3-0 with a goal 7:36 into the second.
“It was awesome. Right off the get-go, we got a couple of quick ones. But it really all came down to the end there, the big four-minute kill at the end,” said the Proctor, Minn. native, who scored six times in the regular season, but had yet to light the lamp in the postseason.
Fighting Walleye coach Geoff Walker, seeking a second straight SIJHL championship after leading Red Lake past Kam River a year ago, said he and his coaching staff talked about the fourth line and what they needed from it.
“Riley Borody was back, he’s a big piece and in this building, on the smaller sheet, we thought those big guys could kind of get into the O-Zone cycle, get to the net and look what happened. Credit to those guys, they stepped up big time and we’ll need more of that tomorrow,” Walker said of the line, which also includes Game 4 overtime hero Euan Morrison.
Borody scored the game's first goal.
The contest looked like it was all but over early in the second, after Ethan Lang’s second chance shot found the back of the net behind Thunder Bay goaltender Connor Lemieux, the Fighting Walleye rocking a 4-0 lead.
The North Stars had another script to write. It just didn't come with the ending they'd drafted up.
Sam Skillestad broke Eric Vanska’s shutout bid at the 14:36 mark of the third, the first of three power-play goals Thunder Bay would score as they tried to rally back from four down.
The goal came with the North Stars up two men, and before the second penalty expired, Nikolas Campbell had cut the gap to 4-2, ripping a shot from the right circle that lit the lamp for the second time in 75 seconds.
Skillestad added his second of the night at 10:31 of the third, but it was as close as the North Stars would get, despite a four-minute kneeing penalty assessed to Kam River’s Borody at 15:48 of the final stanza.
“I don’t know how many blocked shots we had,” Walker said. “That’s a championship team. That’s what it looks like. That’s what it feels like. We know this team over there is not going to go anywhere. They came back from down 3-1 against Dryden, so it should be an interesting one tomorrow.”
Thunder Bay coach Rob DeGagne said the game plan for Game 6 is simple – don’t spot the Walleye a four-goal lead.
“If you spot a team four goals, it’s hard to come back from four goals. I’m proud of the way our guys played. The series is so close, it’s a goal here, a goal there, a bounce there,” DeGagne said.
That said, it’s win or go home time, he said.
“We’ve been there before. We were down three games to one against Dryden, so we had to win three in a row there. I don’t think that’s going to bother us. We’ve got to win a game in our barn and if we win a game in our barn, we’ll be playing Game 7,” DeGagne said.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Kam River, Borody (Cook, Reyelts) 3:18. 2. Kam River, Reyelts 1 (Morrison) 13:08. Penalties: Gallaher KRW (tripping) 3:32.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. Kam River, Reyelts 2 (Cook, Borody) 7:36. 4. Kam River, E. Lang 5 (Leduc, Bell) 11:40 pp. 5. Thunder Bay, Skillestad 6 (Halushak, Weeks) 14:36 pp. 6. Thunder Bay, Campbell 14 (Halushak, Feist) 15:51 pp. Penalties: Weeks TB (boarding) 0:29, Braham KRW (cross checking) 8:27, Bench minor TB (too many men, served by Glousher) 10:04, Morrison KRW (interference) 12:40, Pufahl KR (slashing) 14:24, Campbell TB (boarding) 17:05, Glousher TB (cross checking), Leduc KRW (tripping) 17:57.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 7. Thunder Bay, Skillestad (Fuchs, Feist) 10:31 pp. Penalties: Skillestad TB (cross checking) 2:31, Reyelts KRW (tripping) 5:07, Braham KRW (tripping) 9:11, Borody KRW (cross checking) 11:48, Borody KRW (kneeing double minor) 15:48, Halushak TB (interference) 19:58
GAME DATA – SOG – Thunder Bay 17-21-12-50, Kam River 18-30-9-57; Power plays (goals-chances) – Thunder Bay (3-8), Kam River (1-4); Goaltenders – Thunder Bay: Connor Lemieux, Kam River: Eric Vanska; A: 910.
