OLIVER PAIPOONGE – Jacob Lamoureux was brought in to score goals.
The dividend paid off on Saturday night.
The Sherwood Park, Alta. Native, who scored six times in 15 games after arriving from the Greater Sudbury Cubs midway through the season, scored the overtime winner 4:43 into the extra frame to lead the Kam River Fighting Walleye to a 3-2 Game 2 triumph over the visiting Thunder Bay North Stars at the Norwest Arena.
The win, Kam River’s sixth straight to open the Superior International Junior Hockey League playoffs, gives them a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which moves to Fort William Gardens for Game 3 on Tuesday night.
“It was obviously a good shot, I’ll give myself that,” said Lamoureux, who has played on six different teams over the past three seasons, including a 35-goal campaign with the SIJHL’s Red Lake Miners in 2022-23.
“But it took everyone else right up until that moment. It was forechecking hard, taking good shifts, setting each other up for success and that’s how I was able to get the goal.”
Kam River coach Larry Wintoneak said the team brought Lamoureux in at the trade deadline for an explicit reason.
“That’s the kid we thought could put us over the top. He’s is a goal scorer and he can score goals in any which way. His game has really taken off in the last month or so, and I thought tonight he had a really good game,” Wintoneak said. “It was great to see him score that winning goal.”
It’s a game that saw the Fighting Walleye jump in front 2-0 in the latter half of the second period, Edward Liang, with his second goal in two nights, and Carter Nailen beating Keenan Marks less than three minutes apart.
The Stars, however, got one back before the middle stanza ended, Alex Remenda picking up a puck in Fighting Walleye goaltender Ashton Sadauskas’ crease and shovelling a backhand home on the power play to cut the Kam River lead in half.
Thunder Bay kept pressing in the third and it finally paid off when Jared Feist knotted the game at two just past the midway point of the period.
Seconds later the Fighting Walleye slipped one past Marks, but the celebration was short-lived, the on-ice officials immediately waving the goal off, saying it was directed into the net by a high stick.
The Fighting Walleye found fortune two minutes later, the same officials choosing not to call a too-many-men penalty when the puck hit the skate of a player leaving the ice. Then they killed a two-minute cross-checking minor assessed to captain Daxton Lang, the penalty called at the 13:40 mark.
Neither team scored the rest of the way in regulation.
Thunder Bay’s Marcellus Francis had a great chance to end it in the opening two minutes, pouncing on a turnover, only to have Sadauskas turn his shot attempt aside. The Kam River goaltender then stymied Cohen Tangedal seconds later.
“He made some really good stops for us. Ashton is one of those kids that sometimes he doesn’t get the accolades, but as you could see tonight, he was there for us. That’s pressure. Athletes like that … and when those kids are in that situation, they rise to the challenge,” Wintoneak said.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: None. Penalties: Larrett TBN (hooking) 5:13.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Kam River, Liang 2 (Powar, Lachimea) 11:17. 2. Kam River, Nailen (Wright) 14:15 pp. 3. Thunder Bay, Remenda (Mikus) 15:08 pp. Penalties: Mintenko KRW (interference) 5:54, Halls KRW (charging) 10:22, Feist TBN (unsportsmanlike conduct) 10:50, Simeoni TBN (cross checking) 12:49, Poddubny KRW (unsportsmanlike conduct, roughing), Baumann KRW (roughing), Buffone TBN (roughing), Glousher TBN (roughing) 14:39,
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 4. Thunder Bay, Feist (Francis, Loke) 10:05. Penalties: Lang KRW (cross checking) 13:40.
OVERTIME
Scoring: 5. Kam River, Lamoureux (unassisted) 4:43. Penalties: None.
GAME DATA – SOG – Thunder Bay 6-13-10-1-30, Kam River 11-12-8-2-33; Power plays (goals-chances) – Thunder Bay (1-4), Kam River (1-3); Goaltenders – Thunder Bay: Keenan Marks, Kam River: Ashton Sadauskas; A: 892.
