Eskies spoil Skyhawks comeback

The puck just trickles by the post during third period play. Photo by Chris Dawson.

The North Bay Skyhawks erased a 2-0 third period deficit only to see Matt Brunet spoil the comeback with a pair of goals in the latter portion of the third period to give the Abitibi Eskimos a 4-2 victory over the Skyhawks Sunday night at Memorial Gardens.

The Skyhawks came out with intensity in the third period of the tight checking affair as Brad Hummel got the Skyhawks on the board only 1:24 into the period.

Cody Carnevale tied the game a 2-2 just short of the 10 minute mark.

The Eskimos bounced back less than a minute and a half later as Matt Brunet beat Shaffer stick side after a perfectly executed 2 on 1 allowed Brunet to come in all alone on the Skyhawks goalie.

Eskimos goalie Miles Williams came up with a pair of big saves with just over five minutes remaining in regulation but that was the closest the Skyhawks would get to tying the score.

The Skyhawks had a chance to even the score with a powerplay with less than three minutes left to play but the best powerplay chance was a shorthanded partial breakaway by Dan Dube who was stopped on the deke by Shaffer.

A Kyle Heroux slashing penalty with 1:02 to play pretty much sealed the victory for the Eskimos as Matt Brunet scored his second goal of the game into an empty net in the final minute of play to make it 4-2.

Skyhawks head coach Darren Turcotte was impressed with the comeback but not with the final result.

"We have to be a little bit more emotional if we are going to play a playoff style game," said Turcotte.

"The first two periods when you are playing like that the other team gets ahead the other team has to open up a little bit in the third period, you know we got a couple back and we got it tied up but we stayed open up and then you end up with 2 on 1’s against you and when guys like Brunet and Dube are out there on a 2 on 1 they are pretty good but we didn’t give them those chances in the first period."

Eskimos forward Dan Dube was named the game's first star while Brad Norkum was second star and Cody Carnevale was named the third star of the game.