Skyhawks roll over Eskimos

Taking it on the chin! Eskimos forward Zach White has a tough time standing after losing a third period bout with Skyhawks heavyweight Dustin McCrank. Photo by Chris Dawson.

The North Bay Skyhawks scored four times in the second period and that was enough for the locals to hold on for a 5-2 victory over the Abitibi Eskimos Sunday night at Memorial Gardens.

Nathan Hewitt, Nick Kulas, Justin Roy, Ken May and Stephane Belanger scored for the Skyhawks who improve to 5-3 on the season.

However, the win was not exactly pretty.

After building a three goal lead after two periods the Skyhawks then started a parade to the penalty box in the third period which included three 5 on 3 powerplays for the Eskimos. Fortunately for the Skyhawks, the Eskimos didn’t capitalize on the powerplay until Michel Champagne went upstairs on Michael Lalande with 4 seconds left in regulation.

“That was one of the disappointments tonight was our lack of discipline,” head coach Kevin Kerr said about the six minor penalties called against his team in the final frame.

“I mean if we are playing a team with a good powerplay we probably would have lost that hockey game.

“I’m not sure what our mindset is a times because we are 5 and 3 right now but I don’t think we’ve played 60 minutes yet this year,” Kerr said.

“We don’t have the firepower to overcome stupid penalties like that.”

However, Kerr was pleased with the offensive output his club displayed in the second period.

“Tonight we cycled pucks we pressured their “D”, we hounded the puck and that’s our whole game right now to pursue the puck and pressure, pressure, pressure,” Kerr said.

Local product Michael Lalande got his first start of the season in the victory as he turned aside 18 shots. Lalande had been nursing a lower body injury which kept him out of the lineup for the first eight games.

“I thought they played pretty good, a little undisciplined a times, we were killing penalties pretty good,” Lalande said about his debut.

The highlight of the third period for the Skyhawks was a lopsided fight between tough guy Dustin McCrank and Eskies forward Zach White early in the third period. The Kalamazoo, Michigan Native may not have heard about McCrank, but he knows about him now.