HUNDER BAY – Local hockey fans will have the opportunity to watch both of the Thunder Bay AAA Kings midget squads on home ice this weekend against elite competition at Fort William First Nation Arena.
The 2019 TELUS Cup Canadian National Midget Championship-host major midgets will take on the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Sabres Prep School from Faribault, Minn., while the minor midget Kings will go up against the Sioux North Warriors High School from Sioux Lookout, the defending Northwestern Ontario Secondary Schools Athletic Association champions.
Game action for the major midgets begins Saturday at 10 a.m. at FWFNA followed by a 6 p.m. encounter with the Sabres later in the day.
The two sides will then complete their three-game set Sunday morning at 9 a.m.
As for the minor midget Kings, they open up against Sioux North Friday night at 9 p.m. before playing twice on Saturday that feature 3 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. start times.
WEEKEND WRAP-UP
All four of Thunder Bay’s AAA teams played over the weekend in Minnesota.
Here’s a recap of the events.
Both the major and minor midget squads went 2-2 in Round 4 of the North American Prospects Hockey League in Blaine, Minn.
Meanwhile the bantam Kings finished with a 3-1 record in the NAHL Future Prospects tournament also in Blaine and the peewees ended up 2-2 in 42nd annual Spirit of Duluth Tourney.
The majors blanked the Arizona U-18 Bobcats and Shattuck-St. Mary’s by scores of 4-0 and 3-0 with netminder Jordan Smith posting a pair of shutouts.
They also fell 2-1 to the Colorado Springs Tigers and were clipped 4-1 by the Florida Alliance in their finale.
Through 16 games of NAPHL under-18 Elite Division play, Thunder Bay sits in second spot in the eight-team standings with an 11-4-0-1 record.
Nicholas DeGrazia of the Kings leads all U-18 skaters in offensive production with 22 points, including 13 tallies.
DeGrazia was esrlier named NAPHL U-18 Offensive Performer of the Month for November.
Teammate Nikolas Campbell is tied for second in NAPHL numbers having scored 11 times and helped setting up 10 others for 21 points.
Smith is tied for tops in wins among U-18 goaltenders with seven and boasts an impressive 1.13 goals-against average.
Under-16 competition saw Thunder Bay defeat the Arizona Bobcats 3-1 and Pursuit of Excellence from Kelowna, B.C., 4-1 while dropping a pair of narrow decisions, 2-1 to Florida and 3-2 vs. the Nashville Jr. Predators.
The Kings sit in first place in the U-16 Elite Division rankings with a 10-5-0-1 mark while holding a game in hand and being one point ahead of the second place Alliance.
Jack Michaelis and Alex Atwill pace the minor midgets offensively with 16 and 14 points respectively.
Thunder Bay goalkeeper Julien Lefebvre is fourth in average among U-16 stoppers at 1.38.
In the NAHL Future Prospects event, the bantam Kings went 3-0 in round robin play with wins over the Arizona Bobcats (6-4); Alaska All-Stars (2-1) and CarShield AAA (3-1) from St. Louis.
Advancing to the semifinals, the Kings were blanked 2-0 by the eventual tournament champion Chicago Hawks.
Alex Remenda led the club in scoring with five points while Zach Biniaris, Caleb Labelle and Josh Lehto each had three.
Netminder Keenan Marks ended up fourth overall among all teams in goals-against average at 1.50 with a win and the shutout setback vs. Chicago in the semifinal while Daniel Giordino went 2-0 with a 2.50 GAA.
As for the peewee Kings in Duluth, they started strong with victories over Elk River (7-0) and Cloquet (3-1) before dropping a hard-fought decision to a powerful Edina Hornets (5-2) side who went on to capture their fourth Spirit of Duluth title in six years.
Advancing to the consolation semifinal, Thunder Bay were edged 3-2 by a AAA team from Winnipeg, who went on claim the third-place trophy.
