hunder Bay Kings AAA Hockey
Media Update
Release date: Friday, March 10, 2017
Peewee & bantam Kings open HNO districts with victories
THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay peewee and bantam Kings are off to winning starts at the Hockey Northwestern Ontario district championships at Fort William First Nation Arena.
The peewee Kings defeated the West Region HNO Stars 4-1 in the opener Friday while the bantams doubled up the Fort Frances Canadians 4-2 as both sides grabbed the series lead in a pair of best-of-three affairs.
In the peewee match-up, the Kings jumped out to a 2-0 cushion after one period of play with Mannerplaw Winning putting Thunder Bay in front five and a half minutes into the contest before Josh Lehto provided the eventual game-winner during a man advantage opportunity at 11:54.
The Kings upped their cushion to 3-0 with the lone tally of the middle session as Owen Loubier set-up Zach Biniaris in the latter stages of the stanza.
Nolan Mann put the Stars on the board midway through the third, but Winning iced it with an empty netter in the final minute to wrap things up.
Oliver Tuchenhagen faced 11 shots and picked up the win while Kaden King handled 25 of 28 in defeat for the Stars.
Bantam action featured Dawson Lampi giving the home side the advantage with the lone goal of the first.
Nikolas Campbell and Lampi, via the power play, struck just over two minutes apart in the second to make it 3-0 Kings heading into the final frame.
Shaymus Stevenson helped Fort Frances cut into the deficit at 7:42 of the third only to see Lampi feed Owen Perala a couple shifts later to make it 4-1.
The Canadians rounded out the scoring with 14 seconds to go on a Dylan Winsor effort.
Thunder Bay outshot Fort Frances 20-15 with Connor Lemieux earning the victory and Mason Vogrig the setback.
The peewees and Stars will meet again Saturday at 10 a.m. back at FWFNA where Thunder Bay will try and sweep the series and the HNO West side will look to force a third and deciding game at 7:30 p.m.
Meanwhile the bantams and Fort Frances will square off in Game 2 at 11:30 a.m.
Regardless of the outcome, the two teams will also play again at 6 p.m. Saturday to either decide the district title or simply serve as a tune-up for the clubs heading into provincial AAA bantam championship later this month at the Fort William Gardens.
In Kenora, the hometown Thistles are taking on the Thunder Bay major midget Kings in a best-of-three set to determine the branch winner and see which squad will advance to the TELUS Cup West Regional in Manitoba next month.
