Ottawa Valley strikes late to clip Nickel City in U13 provincial play

THUNDER BAY – A Calum Mason extra attacker marker with 1:17 remaining in the third period put the Ottawa Valley Titans ahead and they then added an empty netter to defeat the Nickel City Sons 4-2 Saturday at the All-Ontario under-13 AAA championship at the Fort William Gardens.

After a scoreless opening frame, Nickel City opened the scoring while shorthanded in the second stanza as Cooper Niquet banked one in from behind the net that squeaked past Ottawa Valley goalkeeper Marcus Smolic at 3:09.

On the power play to begin the third period, the Titans connected 25 seconds in when Cole Krottner fired a shot under Sons’ starter Ty Imbeau from the right circle.

Nickel City went back in front midway through the session when Dacey Dupuis stuffed one into the open side from the left of the crease.

Answering with another tying tally at 11:24, Miller Zavitske fired a shot from the top of the left circle that eluded Imbeau over the blocker, short side, to level the proceedings.

Despite the tie score, knowing they needed to win to give themselves any hope of advancing to the playoff round, the Titans pulled the goalkeeper late and were rewarded with the game-winner when Mason stuffed in the decider off a Cole Krottner wrap-around effort.

They then capped off the triumph with a long-range empty netter courtesy of Rory Shaughnessy to seal the decision.

With the outcome, Ottawa Valley moved to 3-3-0 overall and jumped into third sport in the standings, while second place Nickel City fell to 3-1-1.

The top four teams following round robin play will advance to Sunday’s semifinals.

Collecting BioSteel Player of the Game awards in the contest were the Titans’ Calen Gorr and the Sons’ Niquet.