Piche and Royals shut down Skyhawks in shootout

Skyhawks forward Justin Villeneuve puts a shot past Royals goalie Guillaume Piche in the first period. Photo by Chris Dawson.

A shootout was called upon Sunday night when the Temiscaming Royals came to town to face-off against the North Bay Skyhawks. After the five-minute overtime solved nothing the Skyhawks went into the shootout leading with veteran Brad Hummel. Hummel, along with teammates Dustin Fummerton and Ryan Loach all failed to score on Royals goalie Guillaume Piche and the Royals came out on top 4-3 with the lone shootout goal coming off the stick of Royals forward Cedric Boutin.

“We are worried about every other little thing. Not the task at hand,” Head Coach Ian Swalucynski said.

The Skyhawks were the first on the board when Dustin Fummerton made it 1-0 twelve minutes into the first. Fummerton connected with Trent Lizee for a quick give-and-go and fired the puck top-shelf on Royals goaltender Guillaume Piche.

The Royals netminder played a stellar game between the pipes stopping 36 of 39 shots and gave the Royals a fighting chance throughout the game.

“There’s no strategy. Stop the puck. That’s it, that’s all,” Piche said about stopping all three Skyhawks snipers in the shootout.

North Bay’s second goal came on the power-play when Justin Villeneuve banged home the rebound off a bullet point shot from Kyle Radigan.

Temiscaming answered back two minutes later when Skyhawks goalie Jeff Michael gave a huge rebound off a Cedric Boutin shot and Chris Hebert was there to bury the puck to bring the Royals within one - although the scorekeepers credited Boutin with the goal.

The turning point of the game came late in the first when Radigan appeared to score off an innocent shot that trickled past Piche, but the goal was called back because of an early whistle.

It was mostly downhill after that for the Skyhawks.

North Bay got off to a quick start in the second when Dustin Fummerton found the open cage a minute and a half in to make it 3-2. The Royals tied it up late in the third when Clayton Happyjack took advantage of a defensive hiccup and that goal in the final 5 minutes of the third frame sent the game into overtime.

“It shouldn’t have came down to a shootout or even overtime. We got over confident and let the game slip away,” Swalucynski said.

For the Royals it was a big victory after dropping their first three meetings against the Skyhawks including a shootout loss in Temiscaming in the opening week of the season.

“We’ve always came close to beating the Skyhawks. It’s nice to beat the first place team no matter who it is,” Royals Captain Brad Clark said.

This is the third straight game that Skyhawks goal-scorer Soloman McCann hasn’t been in the line-up due to an undisclosed injury..

“If we’re worried about one guy in the line-up we’re not a very good team,” Swalucynski said.

He added that McCann will most likely be back in the line-up by next week.

“This is a marathon not a sprint,” Swalucynski said.

The Skyhawks head to Temiscaming Friday to once again face the Royals then return home Sunday to host the Abitibi Eskimos. Game time is seven for both games.