Skyhawks respond on home ice

Skyhawks forward Chase Gallacher picks up a rebound from goalie Chris Abbey in the second period. Gallacher scored twice and Abbey recorded the shutout. Photo by Chris Dawson.

The North Bay Skyhawks are one win away from their third consecutive NOJHL title.

The Skyhawks built up an early 2-0 lead and cruised to a 4-0 victory over the Northern Michigan Black Bears in game 5 of the best of 7 NOJHL final. The win gives North Bay a huge 3 games to 2 lead in the series.

The local club was coming off two disappointing losses on the road including a 5-0 shutout Saturday afternoon in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan which allowed the Black Bears to even up the series at 2 games apiece.

Frank Desbiens got the Skyhawks offense revving early on as he put the locals on the board just over three minutes into the first period. Chase Gallacher added some more insurance near the 11 minute mark of the period.

Skyhawks head coach Randy Edmonds believes getting the first goal was crucial after the back to back losses in Black Bear country.

“I think we got our offense going,” said Edmonds. “It’s really important at home that you score early in the game and it gives your team confidence it gives your team energy and we did that today, we were up 2-0 relatively early so it made it a lot easier for us.”

Chase Gallacher, who played with a lot of energy on this night and was named the game’s third star, notched his second goal of the contest around the midway point of the second period to help pad the Skyhawks lead.

Yves Bastien finished off the Skyhawks scoring with a nice individual effort early in the third period. The young phenom picked up the puck near the blueline, beat a couple of Black Bear defenders and slipped a nifty backhand past Tony Stoehr to give the Skyhawks the 4-0 lead 23 seconds into the final frame.

On other end of the ice, Chris Abbey made some nifty stops in the third period to preserve his shutout. He stopped all 23 Black Bear shots that were fired at him.

The Skyhawks can send the Northern Michigan Black Bears into hibernation with a win Tuesday night in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Game time is 8 p.m. and BayToday.ca will have updates for you throughout the night.

If necessary, game seven will take place back in North Bay on Thursday night.

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Game Notes: Calgary Flames forward Shean Donovan, who last year at this time was en route to the Stanley Cup final, dropped the puck at center ice for the ceremonial face-off… Head Coach Randy Edmonds recorded the victory behind the bench on his birthday…Edmonds changed things up going with two strong offensive lines Frawley centering Bastien and Desbiens and Rizk centering Cappadocia and Collins. The coach says he plans to use that combination Tuesday night.

With files from Eric Boutilier