The North Bay Trappers found themselves on top of the Great North Midget League world Saturday night as they took the championship with a convincing 8-1 victory over the Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves by sweeping the best of five series, 3-0.
The season will be remembered as a dream season, if you will, as the Trappers went undefeated in the regular season and playoffs, a remarkable 42-0.
“This is a group of kids that were focused from August 25th on,” Head coach Guy Blanchard said after the win.
“We had goals in mind for what we wanted to achieve and we still have two more left with the Ontario Hockey Federation, but we wanted to come in here and be undefeated for the whole year.”
The game started with the Trappers dominating the pace of play, but Wolves goaltender Owen Kilganon stood on his head for much of the first period. It wasn’t until the mid way point that the first goal was scored, which was a shorthanded goal by Zach Lefebvre.
Jimmy Blanchard would tie the game up for the Wolves seven minutes later before Jesse Kirkby scored with just over a minute left to give North Bay the lead once again.
The second period saw the wheels fall off for Sudbury, however, as the Trappers scored three unanswered goals in the frame. The Wolves wouldn’t fair much better in the third as North Bay added three more, including two off the stick of Sam Garagan before the clock ran out on Sudbury’s season and the championship finding a home in North Bay.
But as mentioned the road doesn’t end here for the Trappers, who boast four draft picks of the North Bay Battalion. The question now is, how do you celebrate this victory but reset with more goals in mind?
“They have four days off, then we have two weeks to get ready for the OHF’s,” Blanchard explained.
“They are very focussed. They want to win and we feel like we have the team to do that. We have played against all the big teams that go there, and we have beaten all but one. It’s up to me as a coach to get them ready to go and play for that big week and if we get lucky and get some big breaks, we can go to Thunder Bay and play for the Telus Cup.”
With a perfect GNML season behind them, the Trappers know the sky is the limit.
The Trappers next step will be the OHF's which take place in Clarington from April 1st to April 9th.
