Soo goaltender Ryan McDonald makes a glove save with the Trapper's Dan Frawley waiting on the doorstep. Photo by Matt Gordon. The North Bay Jr. Trappers have opened the 2009-10 NOJHL season on the right foot.
Soo goaltender Ryan McDonald makes a glove save with the Trapper's Dan Frawley waiting on the doorstep. Photo by Matt Gordon.
The North Bay Jr. Trappers have opened the 2009-10 NOJHL season on the right foot. After a shootout win in their opening game on Friday night in Temiscaming, they beat up on the defending champion Soo Thunderbirds 5-1 at Memorial Gardens Sunday night.
The game began with opening ceremonies that included the Branch 23 Legion Pipes and Drums and player and player introductions done under spotlight. The Trappers also debuted their new look dawning Washington Capitals style red, white and blue jerseys.
The Soo opened the scoring 6 minutes into the game when forward Luke O’Brien pounced on a loose puck coming out of the penalty box and scored on a partial break. That was all the offence in the opening frame as the T-birds took the 1-0 lead to the locker room.
Jr. Trapper’s head coach Ian Swalucynski felt his team may have been affected by all the “hoopla” of the opening ceremonies, but was pleased with the effort once they settled down.
“We know how it is, we are a hard working team; in the first period we were a little bit shell shocked, in the second we bought in, third period we bought in. They took some penalties and we capitalized,” said the bench boss.
The Trappers did play much better in the last two frames of the game, especially in the second period where they out-shot the visitors 14-7.
Cory Marquardt got the Traps on the board early in the second period and Michel Ouellette pounced on Marcel Konopelky rebound for the game winner with a little over 2 minutes left in the period.
Konopelky, who is the first captain of the new North Bay Jr. Trappers, was pleased with the team’s effort and grit.
“We don’t have the prettiest team (offensively), but grinders can be better than snipers, we have heart and that’s all we need,” said the newly appointed captain.
In the third the Thunderbirds pushed hard to get back into the game, out shooting the Traps 20-9. However, for the second time in as many games the Trapper’s goalie Michael Mitchell was the difference maker as he stopped all 20 shots and gave his team a chance to win.
“He saved our bacon in the end … your goalie should be your best penalty killer and he was,” said Swalucynski of his keeper.
Konopelky scored the insurance marker midway through the last period jumping into the rush and roofing a wrist shot over McDonald’s glove. Konopelky led the Trapper defence that was very active on the scoreboard on the night getting credit for 6 points.
“We’ve got lots of skill back there, probably even more than up front but that’s all right. They all can skate, they all have a nose for the net and they can all shoot,” said Swalucynski of his back end.
Konopelky said he doesn’t expect to be an offensive leader all year but will look to help out at the other end whenever he can.
“I’m just trying to be a leader and do what I can for the team,” said the veteran blue liner.
Mitchell stole the show the rest of the way, stoning the T-Birds on four straight power plays. Jonathon Aubertin potted an empty netter with 43 seconds left to make the score 4-1. Just 18 seconds later, forward Brodie Barron scored on a great individual effort going around the Soo defender and hitting the top corner on a quick shot.
Mitchell was the games first star making 37 saves on the night, Konopelky and Ouellette each had a goal and an assist and were named stars two and three respectively.
O’Brien had the only point for the T-Birds and McDonald made 30 saves taking the loss as the Soo moved to 1-1 on the season.
Defenseman Ty Smith had two helpers on the night while Konopelky, Marquardt, Ouellette, Michel Gamache, Todd Hellyer, Nick Laporte and Will Laporte each had single assists.
After the game Swalucynski was asked if he was surprised with how his team opened the season after going 0-5 in the pre-season.
“It didn’t surprise anybody in our room; maybe it surprised some other people,” responded the coach.
The Jr. Trappers will be on the road for three games this week; they will play in Sudbury on Wednesday night against the Jr. Wolves. Friday night they will travel to Manitoulin Island where they will play the Islanders before moving on to face the Blind River Beavers on Sunday.
