hunder Bay Kings AAA Hockey
Media Update
Release date: Saturday, March 5, 2016
Photo courtesy Hockey Northwestern Ontario
Major midget Kings swept by Kenora at HNO Districts
KENORA – The Kenora Thistles tallied twice on the power play and once shorthanded to defeat the Thunder Bay major midget Kings 7-1 Saturday to capture the Hockey Northwestern Ontario AAA midget district championship in two straight games at the Kenora Recreation Centre.
The Thistles, who took the opener of the best-of-three series 4-3 on Friday, will now move on to represent the region at the TELUS Cup West Regional, March 31 through April 3 in Saskatoon, Sask.
That four-team event will feature Kenora going up against the respective AAA midget title holders from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, as well as the host Saskatoon Contacts with a berth to the TELUS Cup national midget championship, April 18-24, in Quispamsis, N.B., on the line for the winner.
In Saturday contest, the Thistles broke it open early as they struck three times in a two-minute span on even strength goals from Brendan Martin and Hunter Buzzi along with a man advantage marker courtesy of Matthew Pitchenese.
After Ryan Mignault struck shorthanded 8:46 into the second, Buzzi added another to put the hosts up 5-0 through 40 minutes.
The Kings lone marker came at 9:03 of the third courtesy of Cory Bruchkowski.
Kenora then put the game away late as Buzzi finished off a hat trick and Cole Turbide rounded out the scoring, on the power play, with two minutes to go.
Brock Aiken picked up the win in net for Kenora while Tyler Szturm suffered the loss.
In Friday’s contest, Joel Willan put the Kings in front with an early extra man marker.
Kenora countered with goals from Martin and Mignault to take a 2-1 lead into the middle session.
Bruchkowski tied it for Thunder Bay with the lone tally in the period.
Martin, via the power play, made it 3-2 Thistles a minute and a half into the third before he connected again notching the eventual game-winner with his third of the night.
Logan Mihalcin rounded out the scoring for the Kings with 7:24 as they would get no closer before time expired.
Aiken was the winning goaltender once again while Ryan Fanti suffered the setback in net for Thunder Bay.
Meanwhile the minor midget Kings wrapped up a three-game exhibition series in Sudbury vs. Team Northern Ontario Hockey Association with a pair of losses Saturday.
After skating to a 3-3 draw Friday in the opener, Team NOHA skated to a 6-1 triumph in the opener Saturday afternoon before finishing things off with a 4-2 decision in the evening.
Next up for the minor midget Kings will be the OHL Cup, which runs March 15-21 in Toronto.
