THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay under-18 Kings return to Great North U18 Hockey League play this weekend as they host the Kapuskasing Flyers in a pair of contests at Fort William First Nation Arena.
They’ll open up Saturday at 5 p.m. before finishing up with a 10 a.m. encounter Sunday morning.
The Kings currently sport a 4-1-1 record in the GNU18HL while the Flyers come in at 2-8-1.
Forward Nathan Vita and defenceman Nate Girvin sit tied for top spot in team scoring for Thunder Bay with eight points apiece.
Next is Kellan Ozerkevich with six points while the trio of Aiden Edwards, Michael Figliomeni and Jackson Walker have supplied five each.
Goaltenders Kainaan MacGillivray (2-0-1) and Nolan Meadows (2-1-0) both have started three times in net.
As for Kapuskasing, the Flyers’ duo of Niko Lessard and Dustin Niquet share their scoring lead as they have both picked up 11 points.
Fellow forwards Bruce Shier and Tanner Moreau have chipped in with eight and six points respectively.
Goalkeepers Nicolas-Xavier Racicot (1-4-0) and Alexandre Gravel (1-4-1) both have seen plenty of rubber fired their way so far this season as the Flyers have allowed the second-most goals-against in GNU18HL play so far this season at 76.
Meanwhile, both the Thunder Bay U15 and U13 sides were on the ice this past weekend.
The U15 Kings went 5-1 at the Shanahan AAA tournament in Toronto while the U13s were in Rochester, Minn., skating in ‘The Pumpkin’ tourney and finished with a 1-3 record.
At the Shanahan, Thunder Bay opened picking a 3-2 triumph over the Guelph Gryphons, with Cullen McCormack, Luke Ritson, shorthanded, and Ryder Milani supplying the tallies. Declan Scott got the win in net.
Next up was a 6-3 victory versus the Sarnia-Lambton Jr. Sting where the Kings rallied with four unanswered goals in the third period to pull out the decision.
In the result, Jesse Ukrainec; Lucas Degroot; Rylan Moore; Nolan Grennier; Alex Simeoni and Milani all found the back of the net and saw Bentlee Wiwcharyk dish out two assists.
Maddox Boutette was between the pipes in the come from behind victory.
Continuing their winning ways, Thunder Bay topped the Kitchener Rangers 4-1 then wrapped up round robin play by defeating the Ottawa Valley Titans 5-1.
In the decision against the Rangers, Breaden Tenhunen; Simeoni; Degroot and Milani all scored while Boutette was the winning goalkeeper.
Another well-balanced attack, in taming the Titans, Aidan Lane; Mathew Koch; McCormack; Ritson and Tenhunen were the Thunder Bay marksmen and Scott got the win.
Moving on to quarter-final action, Kings skated past the Toronto Red Wings 3-1 led by the netminding of Scott and goals from Simeoni and Greenier, along with the eventual game-winner off the stick of Cole Witiluk.
Heading to the semifinals against Hill Academy prep school from Caledon, Ont., the Kings would go on to fall 4-2.
Tenhunen and McCormack scored in the setback and Scott suffered the defeat in net.
In Rochester, the U13 Kings dropped games against the Lakeville North Panthers (8-4); Brainerd Warriors (7-2) and the Rosemount Irish (4-1) and defeated the St. Michael-Albertville Knights (5-3).
Pacing the club offensively was Chandon Adduono, who racked up seven points on a trio of tallies and four assists.
Next on the squad was Walter Klug (2G-3A), followed by Ryder Olynick (3G).
They also saw Cooper Christensen (1G-1A); Jordan Hanlan (1G-1A) and Jase Leroux (1G-1A) chip in with two points apiece.
Goaltenders Hudson Landgraff and Griffin Courtis both got two starts each between the pipes for Thunder Bay.
U18 Kings GNU18L schedule/results
Photo credit: James Mirabelli
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U18 Roster Announcement
