ROY, Mich. – The unbeaten Thunder Bay major midget Kings remain are off to the semifinals at the North American Prospects Hockey League’s Dixon Cup Championship tournament in Troy, Mich., while the minor midget Kings remain winless in U-16 play.
Thunder Bay’s under-18 squad punched their ticket to the semis after doubling up the Arizona Bobcats 4-2 Saturday to win their division and improve to 3-0 on the weekend.
They will now meet the also 3-0 Rocky Mountain RoughRiders Sunday morning at 11:15 a.m. with the winner there advancing to the title game at 8 p.m.
As for the U-16 Kings, they dropped a pair of decisions on the day, falling 5-1 to CarShield AAA of St. Louis and 3-1 to Arizona and a re now 0-3 overall.
Major midget action saw Nikolas Campbell strike twice for Thunder Bay in the first period in the triumph over Arizona.
Mason Bazaluk then put the 2019 TELUS Cup Canadian National Midget Championship-host Kings up by three with the lone goal of the middle session as Nicholas DeGrazia picked up a third straight assist in the game.
The Bobcats struck twice early in the third to draw within one, but Trenton Morriseau finished of a Kyler Belluz feed for the Kings to add some insurance and help secure the victory.
Thunder Bay netminder Eric Vanska picked up the win between the pipes.
In the U-16 setback vs. CarShield, the Kings collected their lone tally past the midway mark of the third on a Jack Cook effort while Gage Stewart suffered the defeat in net.
Matthew Valiquette scored on the power play for Thunder Bay in the second stanza vs. the U-16 Bobcats with Julien Lefebvre making 31 saves in the loss.
They’ll wrap-up their NAPHL season Sunday at 7 a.m. against the Colorado Springs Tigers.
All NAPHL contests are streamed live on HockeyTV.com.
