Skyhawks celebrate a late second period powerplay goal. Photo by Chris Dawson. The first place North Bay Skyhawks (18-5-7-3) tilt against the last place Manitoulin Islanders (1-1-28-1) Friday night was something like a match up of David and Goliath.
Skyhawks celebrate a late second period powerplay goal. Photo by Chris Dawson.
The first place North Bay Skyhawks (18-5-7-3) tilt against the last place Manitoulin Islanders (1-1-28-1) Friday night was something like a match up of David and Goliath. It was a powerhouse team with plenty of wins against a lowly Islander squad just dreaming to compete with the top dogs of the league or any team for that matter. Competing was something Manitoulin would have had a better chance at if they learned how to stay out of the penalty box. Instead, the Islanders found themselves shorthanded throughout most of the game, allowing the Skyhawks to totally dominate all three periods of play and walk away with a 5-1 victory in front of an announced 1,818 fans at Memorial Gardens.
Tyler Hummel got the Skyhawks on the scoreboard early, as he found the back of the Islander net just five minutes into the game for his seventh goal of the season. That goal would be the only even strength marker in the contest, as the Skyhawks would go on to score three power play tally’s in the second frame and each team recorded a power play goal in the third for the 5-1 outcome.
Other scoring for the Skyhawks came from Travis Bradshaw, David Ciminelli, Brad Hummel and Justin Roy, while Derek Champlain had Manitoulin’s lone goal. North Bay’s Brad Norkum chipped in three assists while Kody Carnevale and Chad Jones pitched two helpers each to help in the win. Single assists for the blue and white went to Kyle Radigan, Tyler Hummel and Brad Hummel respectively. Andre Laperriere turned aside 14 of 15 shots fired his way earning the victory for the Skyhawks. The final shots on goal saw North Bay tripling Manitoulin by a 45-15 margin. The Islanders were penalized far too often in the game, collecting 15 minor penalties, while North Bay picked up 10.
“Undisciplined play you know, they took it to us and we made some mistakes, we put our sticks up where they shouldn’t have been,” Manitoulin’s Head Coach Larry Roy said of his team’s penalty trouble after the game.
Although the Islanders had trouble staying out of the box, which ultimately gave them no chance at winning the game, Roy, also spoke of the Islanders lack of moving the puck forward and breaking out of their own zone.
“We were turning it around, it’s almost like we were scared to go forward with the puck,” Roy explained. “Our defenseman were turning around with the puck and bringing it back into our zone and we can’t do that with this team (Skyhawks)” Roy added.
North Bay played without several key members due to various injuries, however, after the game Skyhawks Head Coach Ian Swalucynski was confident the team will get some of their players back after the Christmas break.
“Everyone’s got the green light,” He said. “Trainor lost his walking cast, he should be good to go, Shiverdecker is going to be cleared to go, Fummerton’s going to be good to go along with Lizee, he should be good to go”.
When asked what he thought of North Bay’s performance in the first half of the season, Swalucynski was generally pleased with their results.
“I thought it was good, we only got injuries in the last five games, then we went on a little skid,” he said. “At the end of the day we’re still in first, we played well, we know what we have to improve on and that’s the way we played tonight….we have to play 60 minutes from here on out,” a satisfied looking Swalucynski added.
The games three stars all went to North Bay, with Kody Carnevale, Brad Hummel and Chad Jones each collecting the honors.
The Skyhawks have a break now until Thursday Jan, 3, 2008, when they travel to the John Rhodes Arena Community Center in Sault Ste. Marie, to take on the third place Thunderbirds (14-3-6-7); game time starts at 8:15pm.
