The North Bay & District major bantam AAA Trappers hosted the Nickel City Sons for two games this past weekend. In game one on Saturday afternoon in Powassan the Trappers enjoyed a six goal second period on their way to a 7-0 victory. Caleb Sanders recorded the shutout and Ben Harris lead the way offensively with two goals. Other Trappers goals went to Jake Fullerton, Will Perreault, Owen Ethier, Keenan Castle and Tyler Desmarais. Nico Laforge and Todd Violette chipped in with a pair of assists while single helpers went to Anden Ringuette, Keane Koivisto, JJ Pharand, Ethier, Perreault and Desmarais.
On Sunday morning the Trappers fell behind 3-0 midway through the second period before battling back to settle for a 4-4 tie.
Caelan McAuliffe was between the pipes for the Trappers. Dominik Godin, Laforge, Ringuette and Harris had the goals for the Trappers. Brett Richardson has a pair of assists while Callum Craft, Ethier and Violette has single helpers.
The major bantams travel to Chelmsford next weekend for a three game set vs Nickel City.
Major Peewee
The North Bay Hopper Buick/GM Major Peewee AAA Trappers swept through the Sudbury Wolves during a weekend series at West Ferris arena over the weekend.
On Saturday morning the Trappers skated to a 5-0 win. Zach Major, Caleb Dawson, Mathieu Turgeon, Ayden Thomason and Jesse Lefebvre scored in the win.
Michael Purkhart registered the shutout.
On Saturday afternoon, Ayden Thomason scored three times in a 7-2 win over the Wolves. Mathieu Turgeon, Nate Gravelle, Jesse Lefebvre and Noah St. Jean had the other goals. Justin Robinson got the victory in goal.
On Sunday morning the Trappers completed the sweep with a 8-1 win. Zach Major and Davis Anello both scored twice in the victory. Austin Odd, Ayden Thomason, Mathieu Turgeon, and Nate Gravelle had the other goals.
Trappers head coach John Couch believes the Major Peewees are hitting their stride as the playoffs approach.
"It seems they have found another gear and we are excited to see them continue to improve over the next six weeks leading up to our playoffs," said Couch.
"I was happy to see us get scoring out of all our lines, it was truly a full team effort."
He credits the defence for stepping up in the three-game set.
"We often forget to acknowledge the contribution from our Defense the fabulous four log a lot of minutes, they all got on the game sheet this weekend and along with our league leading goalies kept the goals against to 3 after 9 periods of hockey," he said.
"So a big shout out to Jacob McGill , Johnny Couch, Zach Major and Davis Anello."
Minor Peewee
This past weekend the Greco’s Lakeshore Minor Peewee AAA Trappers had the Timmins North Stars in town for a three-game series at Pete Palangio. The Trappers played some of their best hockey and came away with three wins.
Game one saw the Trappers in the lead most of the game, despite spending eighteen minutes in the penalty box. Jackson Culin was first on the board with a blast from the point followed by Nicolas Corbeil and Briir Long each scoring one by the end of the first period. With a 3-1 lead going into the second period, Simon Toupin added one more making the score 4-2 heading into the third. Assists in the game went to Long, Grayden Robertson-Palmer, Cameron Popp and Jacob Jutras.
Timmins pushed hard for the comeback, but the Trappers managed to hold them off winning 4-3.
It was another close game later on that evening with a 0-0 score heading into the second period. Ben Graham opened up the scoring with an unassisted goal at 13:43 of the second period with Grayden Robertson-Palmer following up with one in the second and another in the third, assisted by Noah Dugas, to seal the deal with a 3-1 win.
Heading into Sunday, up two games, the Trappers arrived rested and ready to play. It was 3-0 after the first period with Culin scoring the first, assisted by Prisco-Duquette, then Robertson-Palmer added two more which were assisted by Culin and Long. Owen Head added another mid match, Mason Rotondo and Ben Graham had the helpers on the goal. Robertson-Palmer continued the scoring, for the hat trick, with an unassisted goal. Jacob Jutras assisted by Simon Toupin added the final tally in the 6-2 win.
The successful weekend solidified second place in the league for the Trappers leading to a home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Head coach Marc Long was pleased with the team’s effort over the weekend:
“It was great to see the boys come together and play the systems we have been practicing,” he said.
The team heads to Mississauga at the end of the month for the Mississauga Rebels Border Battle Tournament, before their final regular season series against Nickel City in Sudbury the first weekend of February.
