Skyhawks win opener over Royals (updated)

Skyhawks forward Scott Britton is stone walled by Royals goalie Guillaume Piche as he makes one of his 38 saves on the night. Photo by Chris Dawson.

Story by Matt Gordon

Goaltending was the story Sunday night at Memorial Gardens as the Skyhawks shutout the Temiscaming Royals 2-0 in the opening game of the 2008-09 NOJHL regular season. North Bay peppered Royal’s goaltender Guillaume Piche with 40 shots in the contest, but the net minder was up to the task turning away all but 2 shots and giving his team a chance to win until the late stages of the game.

Not to be outdone however was ‘Hawks goaltender Jeff Mickael, who stopped all 23 shots he faced on the way to his first Junior A shutout. Although Mickael was not as busy as Piche he was forced to make several game saving saves throughout including a beautiful post to post save on a well executed 2 on 1 by the Royals late in the second period.

Both goalies were making their NOJHL regular season debuts and both walked away with star of the game honours; Mickael taking the 3rd star while Piche was 2nd.

First star of the game was North Bay winger Ryan Loach, who potted the game’s first goal and added an assist on the insurance marker. Late in the first Loach took advantage of a miscue by a Royal’s defender, stripping him of the puck to go in alone where he was able to get one by Piche with a nice move.

Scott Britton rounded out the scoring for the Skyhawks and Mitchell Davis, Cody Carnevale and Kyle Radigan all added lone assists.

Skyhawks coach Ian Swalucynski was pleased with his teams overall performance noting that inexperience played a factor in the lack of offence.

“We were scrambling and we looked a little bit nervous, some guys were playing in their first ever Junior game,” he declared when asked about the contest.

However, the coach was quick to note that his squad did put up a fair amount of shots and gave credit to the Royals netminder for his performance.

“He made 5 great stops in first, about 7 or 8 in the second and he made a pile of them in the third,” Swalucynski acknowledged of Piche.

For Temiscaming, this was their first game action together as they were forced to cancel their pre-season games and also had recently added a few players to their roster. Forward Pier-Paul Landry arrived just hours before the game; the flashy New Brunswick player was a late cut from the Royal’s QMJHL affiliate, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
The lack of cohesiveness showed on a team that has not had much on ice time together and they were unable to take advantage of some undisciplined play by the Skyhawks. The Royals got a 7 minute power play in the second on combined fighting major and instigator assessed to ‘Hawks forward Will Laporte. Midway through the third they were given a 4 minute advantage but the Skyhawks penalty kill was able to shut them down again.

Royal’s head coach Steve McCharles, although happy with his teams performance, he mentioned that the outcome was not what they were looking for.

“We’re not satisfied with the loss, but at the same time we know there is a lot of work to do and a lot of improvement to come,” said the coach after the game.

Both teams will now turn their attention to Friday night when they will complete the back end of the home and home series in Temiscaming. McCharles expects to have a strong fan base behind them at home as they had a large group filling the stands on the visitor’ side at the Gardens.

“It should be a sell-out and I would expect pretty close to that most Friday nights in Temiscaming … it’s a great community to have a hockey team in.”

North Bay Captain Cody Carnevale also spoke of the new rivalry after the game.

“More people in the seats is good, its just more noise; boos or cheers the louder it is the better,” said the North Bay forward when asked about the atmosphere Sunday night.