North Bay forward Will Laporte celebrates his third period goal which turned out to be the game winner. Photo by Matt Gordon.
The North Bay Skyhawks held on for a 5-3 victory over the Abitibi Eskimos Sunday night in front of 2565 fans at Memorial Gardens. The Skyhawks led 4-1 early in the third period but let Abitibi climb within a goal in the late stages. North Bay held the Eskimos in check for most of the night, limiting them to 20 shots on the night and only 4 in the third period.
Dustin Fummerton got the ‘Hawks on the board midway through the first period with a power-play goal. Newcomer Alex Valenti scored just over a minute later to put the home side up by two; Ryan Loach picked up assists on both goals.
Abitibi came out flying early in the second and were rewarded when Michael Robert was able get one by Skyhawks net-minder Jeff Michael early in the frame. Another new addition to the Skyhawks, Dan Frawley, scored late in the second to restore the two goal lead. Frawley and the rest of the 4th line of Will Laporte and Tyler Hummel had an excellent offensive night, potting 4 points between them.
Laporte assisted on Frawley’s goal and scored the eventual game winner early in the third on a goal mouth scramble and after the game he spoke of the new found grove with his “grind line” mates.
“(Coach Swalucynski) threw us together in practice … we have been working together all week and we have pretty good chemistry going,” said the 6’3” power forward.
Skyhawks head coach Ian Swalucynski said that he was not surprised by the 4th line’s offensive outburst.
“We’ve got four lines that can do it,…we’ve got lines that can score, lines that can hit, lines that can fight and lines that can do everything,” boasted the coach. “We’re just working hard and trying to earn everyone’s respect,” he added.
The Laporte goal gave the ‘Hawks a three goal cushion and the team played well with the lead, only allowing one Eskimo shot in the first 12 minutes of the third period. However, shortly after both Tyler and Brad Hummel drew misconducts for fighting with 5 minutes remaining, the team seemed to sit back and allow the Eskimos back in the game.
“We figured 52 minutes of hockey that we played within our game plan,” said Swalucynski in his post game interview. “We were taking care of our end and then everything we told them to do, they did the opposite on their third goal. We’ve got to work on that and stay focused for a whole 60 (minutes),” added the bench boss.
Felix Boutin scored his first of two late goals with just over four minutes remaining and added another with only 1:30 left in the contest. The comeback was quashed however when North Bay defenseman Nathaniel Vail put away the game with an empty netter.
Although he allowed 2 goals on just 4 third period shots, Michael played strong in goal for the ‘Hawks, sitting through long droughts without a shot. The keeper made 17 saves on the night including a beautiful glove save from the splits that got the crowd buzzing. Joel Vienneau took the loss in goal for Abitibi making 25 saves.
Valenti, Laporte and Loach were stars one, two and three respectively. Fummerton, Kody Carnevale, Justin Villeneuve, Joel Senecal and both Hummel brothers each had one assist on the night.
Other point getters for Abitibi included Marc-Alain Begin with two assists while Josh Clancy, Alex Fiset, Jason Robin and Dustin Roy each had one.
The win gives North Bay an eleven point lead on Abitibi in the Eastern Division standings with another two games in hand as well. The team now travels to Temiscaming for a battle against the Royals on Friday night. The Skyhawks next home game is scheduled for Sunday, February 8th again against Abitibi.
