Skyhawks goalie Jeff Michael stretches out to stop Royals forward Corey Raymond on a partial breakaway in the second period. Photo by Chris Dawson.
The North Bay Skyhawks ended their season on a high note with a 5-3 victory over the visiting Temiscaming Royals Sunday night at the Gardens. The win was North Bay’s 41st of the season ending their record at 41-6-3 which places them at the top of the NOJHL standings. As of last Monday, February 23rd the Skyhawks were also ranked 14th in the CJHL’s weekly Power Rankings.
The Royals (17-28-4), know they will finish 4th in the Eastern division and have one game left in the regular season against Abitibi on Wednesday. That means the two border rivals will face-off against one another in the first round of the NOJHL playoffs.
Although the win finished the season series at 11-1 in favour of North Bay, the last three games have been tight battles including a come from behind, shootout victory at Le Centre for North Bay in late January.
The good competition of late and the ever-growing rivalry between these two teams, sets the stage for what should be a great first round playoff series. Game one is slated for next Sunday night at the Gardens.
In the win Sunday night, Dustin Fummerton got the Skyhawks on the board first with a spinning slap-shot goal from the slot early in the first. Darren Shecapio scored for the Royals a few minutes later to tie the game up at ones.
Solomon McCann got his league leading 42nd goal on the power play a minute after the Shecapio goal. McCann seemed to be passing on the play but fanned on the attempt and the puck found a hole on the short side of Royals net minder Jim Murray.
Tyler Stevenson scored on a breakaway to tie the game up again; he almost scored on a second free pass a minute later when ‘Hawks defenseman Brad Norkum got tripped up at his own blue line.
Temiscaming got an early goal in the second period when Kory Cashaback one timed a beautiful shot to the top corner over Skyhawk goaltender Jeff Michael’s right shoulder.
Joel Senecal tied the game back up for the home side, putting home a nice pass from Jeff Villeneuve at the side of the net. Ryan Loach got the eventual game winner late in the second on a great individual effort shorthanded. Loach went through two Royals defenders at the blue line and slid the puck under Murray for his 22nd goal of the year.
The teams traded chances in the third but both teams seemed to be saving their best for the playoffs as neither side showed the spark that they normally have. Corey Raymond had the best chance of the period; the Royals forward rang one off the crossbar with about five minutes remaining which would have tied the game.
Brad Norkum scored an empty net goal with under a minute to go to seal the win for the Skyhawks.
Neither coach was pleased after the game with their team’s effort on Sunday and both said they expect better from their squad in the opening round of the playoffs.
“Gotta be better; a new season’s coming,” was Skyhawks head coach Ian Swalucynski’s first words as he emerged from the dressing room after Sunday nights game. “We’ve got 41 wins; we’ve got no excuses, we have to make sure that we’re doing the right things and we can’t give them a sniff,” he added.
Temiscaming head coach Steve McCharles said he echoed his counterpart’s thoughts.
“If my guys play any kind of game we might (have) pulled out a win here,” said the Royals bench boss of his team’s performance on Sunday. “We’re working on some things right now that have allowed us in the last six or seven games to play real sound hockey; we got away from that a little bit tonight,”he added.
Adding assists on the night for the ‘Hawks were Fummerton, Villeneuve, Kody Carnevale, Brad Hummel, Trent Lizee and Kyle Radigan. Guillaume Brisebois, Felix Gilbert, Clayton Happyjack and Pier-Paul Landry had the helpers for the Royals.
Murray allowed 4 goals on 29 shots, while Michael stopped 23 of the 26 shots he faced. Norkum, Senecal and Landry were stars one, two and three respectively on the night.
The teams have become bitter rivals over the course of the Royals first season in the NOJHL. There have been some rough battles between the two on the ice and that, along with a war of words between the clubs off the ice, should create a great playoff atmosphere.
“It’s gonna’ be a war and we know that,” said Swalucynski of the upcoming series.
As mentioned, game one should take place next Sunday at Memorial Gardens and the teams will play an alternating home game format for the best of seven series.
