Eskimos even series with Skyhawks

For the second straight game the North Bay Skyhawks struggled on offense as the Eskimos built up a 3-0 second period lead and cruised to a 3-1 victory over the Skyhawks on Sunday night at Memorial Gardens.

The Skyhawks were in the driver’s seat in this series before losing 3-0 to Abitibi in Iroquois Falls Saturday night, and after scoring five goals in game two and taking a 2-0 series lead the Skyhawks offense has sputtered as the club played almost five periods of scoreless hockey before Joe Trotter tipped a Chris Van Laren point shot on the powerplay past Nigel Williams to cut the lead to 3-1.

“The last couple of games they’ve played well defensively and we’ve got to find a way to get them spread out we were able to do that in the first two games, they’ve made some adjustments and we tried to make some adjustments to get our offense going and we just haven’t been able to find the back of the net,” said Skyhawks head coach Darren Turcotte.

Russel Morin, Matt Brunet and Jeremie Dorval scored for the Eskimos in the road victory which gives the Eskies home ice advantage in what now has become a best-of-three series.

“We have momentum winning the last two games but the one thing about it is ten minutes from now the guys are back to earth and we are going to concentrate on our next assignment and that’s the next game, “ said Eskimos head coach Paul Gagne

The two teams will take Monday off before heading North for Iroquios Falls Tuesday in a pivotal game five of this series. The loser of that game will face elimination on North Bay Memorial Gardens ice Wednesday night.