THUNDER BAY – Storming back from an early deficit, the Nickel City Sons responded with six unanswered goals to defeat the Whitby Wildcats 6-2 Friday at the All-Ontario under-13 AAA championship, presented by BioSteel, at the Fort William Gardens.
A quick start to the contest saw four tallies provided before the meeting was 10 minutes in.
Whitby began the scoring when Jaxson Menary converted from in close on the power play at 3:01, then saw teammate Ryder Nobes bury another man advantage marker 38 seconds later with a nice shot from the slot.
Regrouping, Nickel City went to work and saw Cooper Niquet jam in a cross-ice feed from Preston Hebert at 5:04.
The Sons then drew level after a big save from netminder Nicolas Rocca, which allowed Ty Belanger corral the loose puck and dash up ice and fire one by Wildcats’ netminder Cohen O’Neill.
Not down there, the NOHA reps took the lead just before period expired as Belanger banged in another by finishing off a Dacey Dupuis pass.
A fourth straight Nickel City strike saw Dupuis wheel in and make no mistake with his opportunity at 4:41 into the second stanza.
Putting the game away with under six minutes to play in the game, Ryan Thompson chipped one up to Seth Verbewski, who cruised through the top of the circles before ripping a shot past O’Neill.
Adding one more to wrap things up offensively was Thompson, who roofed one from the left side.
Rocca picked up the win in net on an afternoon that saw the Sons hold a 38-20 edge in shots.
Player of the game awards went to Nickel City’s Preston Hebert and Whitby’s Bence Kolobutin.
Photo credit: James Mirabelli
