hunder Bay Kings AAA Hockey
Media Update
Release date: Friday, March 31, 2017
Major midget Kings advance to West Regional final with win over Winnipeg
STEINBACH, Man. – The Thunder Bay major midget Kings got a pair of goals from Evan Nicholas along with a 20-save shutout courtesy of Ryan Fanti to help lead them to a 3-0 victory over the Winnipeg Wild Friday in Day 2 play at the 2017 TELUS Cup West Regional in Steinbach, Man.
With the victory, Thunder Bay improves to 2-0 at the four-team event and have secured a berth in Sunday’s championship game against the also 2-0 Regina Pat Canadians.
Regina and Thunder Bay will also meet in round robin action Saturday at 1:30 p.m., in a tune-up before meeting in Sunday’s championship game at 3 p.m.
Against the Wild, a fast-paced first period was scoreless thanks to the efforts of starting goaltenders Fanti of the Kings and Winnipeg’s Niklas Anderson.
The Hockey Northwestern Ontario title holders would open the scoring early into the middle stanza as Nicholas was sent in alone on a breakaway and made no mistake, snapping the night’s initial tally past Anderson.
It stayed 1-0 Thunder Bay throughout the rest of the frame thanks to some solid penalty killing and shot blocking by the Kings’ defensive corps as well as a number of quality stops by Fanti.
An early strike in the final frame allowed the Kings to go up by a pair as Nicholas was credited with his second of the contest 60 seconds into the stanza with assists going to Jayden Wojciechowski and Cody Bruchkowski.
Robert Tyska supplied some insurance with 4:23 to go thanks to a crisp feed from Fletcher Anderson with Jacob Brown also adding a helper on the final offensive effort of the contest.
Thunder Bay outshot Winnipeg 25-20 in the win.
Sunday’s title game goes at 3 p.m. ET and will feature the top team teams in round robin competition looking for a berth to the TELUS Cup Canadian midget championship, April 24-30, in Prince George, B.C.
TELUS CUP West Regional
Schedule/Results
At the T.G. Smith Centre
Steinbach, Man.
Thursday, March 30
Regina 2 Winnipeg 1
Thunder Bay 5 Eastman 1
Friday, March 31
Thunder Bay 3 Winnipeg 0
Regina 4 Eastman 1
Saturday, April 1
Regina vs. Thunder Bay 1:30 p.m.
Winnipeg vs. Eastman 4:45 p.m.
Sunday, April 2
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Thunder Bay vs. Regina 3 p.m.
Winner advances to TELUS Cup Canadian National Midget Championship, April 24-30, in Prince George, B.C.
