Skyhawks fall in Marathon

Dudley-Hewitt Cup

St. Michael's Buzzers 4
North Bay Skyhawks 3
Final/4th Overtime


The North Bay Skyhawks put themselves behind the eight ball Tuesday night, dropping their Dudley-Hewitt Cup opener to the host Georgetown Raiders 7-2.

With little turnaround time, the Hawks faced a tough opponent in the form of the Ontario Junior A champs. The St. Mike's Buzzers came into the game on a losing note, as they were upset Tuesday afternoon 6-4 by the Fort William North Stars. So both the Skyhawks and Buzzers were looking for their first win of the round robin event. A Skyhawks loss could potentially eliminate them from playoff action.

Things started poorly for the locals as Andrew Cogliano beat Chris Abbey at the 39 second mark of the first period to give the Buzzers a very early 1-0 lead.

The Skyhawks struggled on the power play in game one going 0 for 8 with the extra man, but they clicked early in game two as Yves Bastien scored to tie the game at 1-1 at 6:45 of the first period.

The Buzzers took the lead 5:59 of the second as Corey Wickett beat Abbey to make it 2-1.

Marc Andre Rizk got the Skyhawks back on even terms as he scored the tying goal at 7:02 of the third period on the Skyhawks first shot of the period.

Matt Halischuk scored at 17:43 of the third period to give St. Mikes a huge 3-2 lead with less than 3 minutes left in regulation time.

However, the Skyhawks responded on a penalty shot called at the 19:23 mark of the final period and David Frawley made no mistake for the Skyhawks, scoring perhaps the biggest goal of his junior hockey career to force overtime. With the Skyhawks pressing for the tie, a Buzzer player knocked the net off the moorings, and referee Scott Oakman called a penalty shot with 37 seconds left in a 3-2 game. Frawley came in on Buzzers goalie Kain Tisi, faked a shot and went backhand undressing the sprawling netminder and causing the Skyhawks bench to erupt.

Little did the Skyhawks and Buzzers know that they would literally have to play more than another full game to resolve what turned into a classic Dudley-Hewitt Cup battle.

The Skyhawks thought they had the winner in the second overtime, as David Frawley was sent in all alone on Tisi, but instead of trying his penalty shot move again, he opted to shoot and Tisi made the crucial stop.

The Skyhawks continued to get chances and missed some glorious opportunities in the third overtime as Frawley and Chase Gallacher both missed wide open nets to keep this thing going.

The score stayed that way until the fourth overtime as young Owen Sound Attack draft pick Matthew Kang scored 6:16 into the 7th period. The shot from Buzzers Julian Zamparo went off the skate of Kang and past Abbey who seemed to have been bumped in the crease while the puck crossed the goal line.

Chris Abbey put up a heroic performance stopping 73 of 77 shots he faced.

“He came firing back from the loss yesterday and made some great saves,” said a disappointed Skyhawks G.M. Guy Blanchard.

The loss was a bitter pill for the Skyhawks to swallow considering how well they bounced back from their 7-2 loss on Tuesday. Although the performance was one of their best of the season, the result was the same, another loss.

"We had the energy and you can’t ask anything more from your players they played their hearts out,” Blanchard said.

"We deserved to win we didn’t deserve to lose."

For Blanchard who coached the Skyhawks to their last two Dudley-Hewitt Cup finals, he realizes chances are slim that they will even make the playoff round in 2005.

The disappointing loss moves the Skyhawks to 0 and 2 and a Fort William victory tonight versus Georgetown eliminates the Skyhawks before their final contest Thursday afternoon against the Thunder Bay club.

If you want to catch this classic, Wednesday's Skyhawks/Buzzers Marathon contest will be broadcasted on Cogeco cable 12 at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night and re-broadcasted again Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m.

SCORING SUMMARY
First Period
St. Michaels - Andrew Cogliano (Kevin Schmidt, Mark Lozzi) 0:39
North Bay - Yves Bastien (powerplay) (Frank Desbiens, Matt Collins) 6:45

Second Period
St. Michaels - Corey Wickett (Julian Zamparo) 5:59

Third Period
North Bay - Marc Andre Rizk (Chase Gallacher) 7:02
St. Michaels - Matt Halischuk (Mike McKenzie) 17:43
North Bay - David Frawley (penalty shot) 19:23

Overtime
(no scoring)
2nd Overtime
(no scoring)
3rd Overtime
(no scoring)
4th Overtime
St. Michaels - Matthew Kang (Julian Zamparo) 6:16


With files from pointstreak.com