JP Kascsak was stopped by Matt Zawadski in the shootout. Photo by Chris Cairns. The first win of 2011 continues to be elusive for the North Bay Jr. A. Trappers.
JP Kascsak was stopped by Matt Zawadski in the shootout. Photo by Chris Cairns.
The first win of 2011 continues to be elusive for the North Bay Jr. A. Trappers.
Christopher Saganash scored the tying goal and the winner in the fourth round of the shootout as the Temiscaming Royals edged the Trappers 4-3 in a scrambly, defensive NOJHL struggle at Memorial Gardens Friday night.
Travis Fernley scored his 11th of the year, Patrick Provencher his third and Dan Morin his first for North Bay (12-17-5). Provencher, Morin and Ryan West each had two- point nights.
Robin Mendelsohn got his 18th and Samuel Sanford-Roy his second for the Royals (15-14-3), who extend their cushion over the last-place Trappers to four points in the East division.
"The hockey gods got something against us that's for sure because we deserved to win that," said Trappers head coach Ian Swalucynski after the game.
"We played hard and killed this huge 5-on-3 against us at the end," said Swalucynski, who admitted his team was tentative as new line combinations searched for chemistry.
"We looked like we were afraid to make a mistake, I mean we opened it up a little bit as the game wore on and got some sparks but we didn't capitalize."
The win for Temiscaming comes amid rumours swirling about the fate of the franchise -- namely that the league may take over operation of the club.
"It's rumour," snapped Royals boss Steve McCharles angrily when asked about the speculation. "There's a lot of vicious people spreading a lot of bad rumours," he said, while admitting an ownership change is still a possibility.
"Financially things are tight, but the league's not taking the team over...if things were to work out properly, would I sell, yeah. Right now we're OK."
The Trappers got the lone goal of a sloppy, miscue-riddled opening period when Fernley found the top right corner at 7:21 when he was left alone in front on a 2-on-1 that developed inside the Royals blue line.
Despite being outshot 13-4 in the second period, Temiscaming evened the game at 8:55 when Mendelsohn easily slid one into a wide-open goal to finish off a precise three-way passing play started off the rush by a speedy Eric Rochefort.
Sanford-Roy gave the Royals their first lead 71 seconds into the third, snapping one from the right circle on a bad angle over the right shoulder of Trappers goalie Landon Noel.
Patrick Provencher drew North Bay even at 6:07 taking a breakaway pass from Ryan West and sliding a backhand through Royals goalie Matt Zawadski's pads.
Controversy surrounded Morin's go-ahead goal from the slot at 11:43 as the net appeared to be off its moorings.
After Jonathan Aubertin failed to convert a glorious chance at the 15-minute mark that would have put the Trappers up by two, Saganash tied it at 3 with just under four minutes left wristing one over Noel's glove from the right slot, just his second of the season.
The Trappers stared down adversity as they were put two men down with 1:25 left as referee Jeff Golden stunningly issued slashing minors to Fernley and Scott Pawson. The Royals hit two posts before taking a tripping penalty of their own 31 seconds into overtime.
The Trappers, who outshot Temiscaming 37-28 overall, got just one shot on their man advantage and were outshot 4-1 in the scoreless extra period.
After the Royals' Joshua Blacksmith and the Trappers' Jamie Olivier traded goals in the shootout, Saganish snuck one that slid ever so slowly under Noel's right pad over the goal line. Zawadski, the game's first star, then stopped Pawson on a high shot for the win.
"I was seeing the puck well, and my defence in front of me were helping me out in front of the net," said Zawadski, whose record improves to 11-5-1.
"I stepped up when I had to, it was an all-around good effort from the team."
The Royals played with just 13 skaters, missing three of their top five scorers in Michigan natives Cole Workman and Griffen Hodges, who are now playing college hockey in the U.S., and Chris Hebert, out with an injury for an extended period. McCharles insists the team has players coming in soon from Quebec and the U-S.
"We've got guys coming in, guys coming back," McCharles said.
"We'll have a full roster, full lineup for January 10th, and we're going to become a threat again."
The Trappers used Nickel City midgets Alex Bottigoni and Mitchell Byrne to fill injury holes left by Brennan Wright and Brendan Giffel.
The Trappers complete the Highway 63 home-and-home in Temiscaming at 2 pm Sunday at Le Centre, and McCharles has a stern and emotional plea to the community there.
"Never mind the nonsense and come out and support these kids that bust their butts for the Temiscaming Royals every night," he said.
GAME NOTES: The Trappers also played without Kyle Rowe, who was scratched for disciplinary reasons...the Trappers honoured officials before the game, with local ref TJ Foster handling the ceremonial faceoff. He recently officiated at the World Under-17 tourney in Winnipeg...Stephane Houle was named Trappers player of the week...Attendance was 743...Golden called 10 penalties, seven to North Bay...the Royals were 0-for-6 on the power play, the Trappers 0-for-2...the three stars were Zawadski, Provencher, and Rochefort.
