THUNDER BAY – It wasn’t like the Thunder Bay Kings gave their opponent a heck of a lot of scoring chances on Monday night.
But the North Bay Trappers made the most of the few they got.
Joe Jordan scored in the first on a botched clearing pass by Kings goalie Connor Lemieux, then Cameron Pariseau added a second in traffic in front of Lemieux in the third – just their third shot since the opening stanza came to an end – and grabbed their second win of Day 1 at the 2017 All Ontario Bantam AAA Championship at Fort William Gardens.
The Trappers (2-0-0) would add two more before the game wound down, Reece Proulx making 22 stops to earn the shutout, his first of the tournament.
The 4-0 loss dropped the Kings to 0-1-1.
North Bay coach Michael Stockfish is happy with his team’s start, but cautiously optimistic about what it actually means.
“Six games in four days, it’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint. We’ve got a few guys already beat up and those were very big points for us because we still haven’t played some of the Toronto teams, who are clearly the favourites here – as they are every year,” Stockfish said.
Still, despite being outplayed in the second even with a five-minute advantage awarded when Thunder Bay’s Trystan Goodman was ejected for a check from behind, the Trappers persevered.
“I was feeling good about our game and then we had a five-minute power play and we looked like a Peewee A team. Hats off to Thunder Bay because it wasn’t us, they did a great job penalty killing. I thought that changed the dynamics of the second period,” Stockfish said.
“We really had a long discussion in between the second and third and we really came out. I thought our best period was the third. We really played very well defensively and that’s when we really opened the game up.”
The Kings, who have only scored once in two games, struggled again to put the puck in the net. They limited North Bay to just two shots in the second, but couldn’t take advantage, even though they commanded the time of possession clock.
“After that big kill in the second period killing that penalty, we looked at numbers and we a zone time of 17 minutes to 10 minutes for them. We did what we needed to do as far as getting the puck in their end, but we were just not sharing the puck enough in the offensive zone," said Thunder Bay coach Ed Atwill.
The Kings best chance came five minutes into the first, when Proulx made a diving stop on Nikolas Campbell. Campbell had another opportunity on a 2-on-1, but waded too deep and couldn’t get enough stick on the shot.
Nat Lalonde and Eric Lafontaine, with his third of the tournament, added two more third period goals for the Trappers.
North Bay takes on York-Simcoe on Tuesday, while the Kings tangle with the Cambridge Hawks at 4 p.m. The Hawks are coached by former NHLer Scott Walker.
Toronto 8, York-Simcoe 2: Reid Valade had a hat trick and Stephen Halliday scored twice and added a pair of assists to lead the Marlboros to victory and a 2-0-0 record. Quinton Byfeld had a pair of helpers for York Simcoe (0-1-0).
Ottawa 4, Cambridge 4: Ben McFarlane and Keegan McMulen scored third period goals to earn the Hawks (0-1-1) a point. Sean McGurn had a goal and an assist for Ottawa (0-0-2).
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. North Bay, Jordan (unassisted) 13:39. Penalties: Jordan NB (interference) 14:20.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: No scoring. Penalties: Goodman TB (checking from behind major, game misconduct, served by Atwill) 3:03, Goode NB (cross checking) 12:43.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 2. North Bay, Pariseau (Buffam, Lalonde) 2:13. 3. North Bay, Lalonde (Pariseau, Masson) 7:29. 4. North Bay, Lafontaine (Flood) 8:08. Penalties: Kuuskivi TB (interference) 8:26, Stockfish NB (hooking) 10:13.
GAME DATA – SOG – North Bay 9-2-7-18; Thunder Bay 8-7-7-22; Power plays (goals-chances) – North Bay (0-2), Thunder Bay (0-3); Goaltenders – North Bay: Reece Proulx, Thunder Bay: Connor Lemieux; A: 500 (estimated).
