Seguin nets OT winner over Gold Miners

Tait Seguin celebrates his first goal. Photo by Chris Dawson.

Tait Seguin scored his second of the game with only 1:36 left in the second overtime to give the North Bay Jr. “A” Trappers (26-6-3-3) the 3-2 victory over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners (21-16-2-2) Sunday afternoon.

Cole Klippenstein scored the other goal for the Trappers to send it to overtime, after the Trappers went down for a second time in the game.

“It looked like a frustrating game, right from the beginning,” said Trappers head coach Tom McCarthy, “I think it was the second shift, I turned to (assistant coach) Stacy (Jackson) and said, ‘Ooo, it’s gonna be one of those days, is it.’ By the fifth shift, I turned to (assistant coach) Terry (Exell) and said, ‘Oh no Terry, we’re gonna have a hard time today’ and you could just see that we were trying to find better ice, we weren’t clicking, everything was a little behind, everything was a little hesitant, you just didn’t see that the pistons were working right together.”

The Miners put 12 shots on Greg Dodds with a four-on-three power play in the final OT, following a Beau Orser interference penalty, but Seguin broke free when things went back to an even playing field.

“Just a light chip off the boards and I was in the right place and I’m going in on a break away,” Seguin said of his OT winner, “Things happen that fast when there’s less guys out there.”

The win extends the now season-long winning streak to five games from the Traps. They won four in a row once from Oct. 27, 2012-Nov. 3, 2012.

The Traps (21.6%) and Miners (20.4%) power play percentage ranked second and third respectively coming in, and it was the special teams that made an impact in key points of the game.

The first was the opening goal, a power play marker from Tanner Lafrance, a nice passing display in the zone at 12:19 of the first.

Overall, the first period was mostly contested with men sitting in the box, as physical play picked up right from the opening face off. The Miners would be the benefactor of those calls, getting three power play opportunities and the Trappers with none.

“I thought it was a loud game early,” said McCarthy, “I think that one of the other team’s attacks is to get in your face a little bit and be physical. I thought there was some big hits thrown all over the ice and sometimes they turned it because they were going at each other so hard, sometimes they turn into injuries and they turn into flails and I think three or four guys today did not finish the game because of it.”

The Trappers came back after a good start to the second and at 7:43, Seguin sneaked in towards the net from the half boards and with nobody covering him, he snapped it between the legs of Chris Komma to tie it up.

At 14:36, Dustin Jesseau streaked down the left side alone, but with two Trappers on him. Jesseau cut to around the net but threw the puck towards the short side. The puck found it’s way crossing the line and the Miners had the lead again.

The Miners would be penalized for a delay of game infraction before the face off at centre ice took place so the Trappers surrendered a goal but wound up on their first power play of the game.

The Traps wouldn’t score on that man-advantage but in the third, it was another key point of the game with special teams as Klippenstein put a slapper top shelf at 16:58, his eighth power play goal of the year to send things to overtime.

“Good teams find a way to win, even when they’re not at their best. They just find a way,” said McCarthy, “I give credit to our boys for their relentlessness. This is part of our characteristics, it’s part of the way we are built as a team and we don’t quit and we didn’t quit and our goalie made some key saves in overtime and we got penalized, we were down a man in overtime and stuff like that. We went down to four-on-three and at anytime, I would feel the panic on the bench but we kept persevering and a credit to our character, we fought through it and managed to get ourselves a win.”

The Traps keep pace two points behind the Soo Thunderbirds, who won their Sunday afternoon game 7-4 at home to Abitibi, however the Traps still have three games in hand.

The Trappers entertain the Elliot Lake Bobcats on Friday, February 15. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. at Memorial Gardens.

Game Notes
-Both goalies were busy overall, as Dodds made 41 saves in the win, while Komma stopped 32 shots.
-The attendance was 562.
-Orser nabbed two assists for the Trappers.
-This was the last meeting of the season between the Trappers and the Gold Miners. The Trappers owned the season series, finishing with a 7-1 record, outscoring them 30-16 in the process.