Trappers end Regionals with a tie

The North Bay Trappers celebrate their last goal of the season against the Cumberland Barons. Photo by Chris Dawson.

The North Bay Trappers avoided finishing in last place at the Central Region Midget AAA Championships Friday night by ending their season with a 2-2 tie against the winless Cumberland Barons.

Marc Senecal and Matthew Thompson both scored powerplay goals as the Trappers finish the event in sixth place in the seven team tournament with a disappointing record of no wins, four losses and two ties.

For the Trappers not much went right as the host team. Head coach Larry Keenan couldn't even pay tribute to his graduating players properly because two of them; Cody Carnevale and Kyle Radigan, were in the penalty box in the dying seconds of the game.

All of the grads were supposed to be on the ice for the final shift of the season as Keenan even elected to pull Marc Veilleux and put in graduating goalie Patrick Beaudry in the final few minutes of the game.
"Of course we had a better chance of having them all in the penalty box than we had on the ice, they screwed it up so we stopped the plan." Keenan said jokingly after what he says is his last game ever behind the bench for the North Bay Trappers.

Still the nine penalties in this game give them 40 in their final three games of the tournament.

“From the drop of the puck to the end we took too many penalties,” Keenan said.

“That’s mental toughness and that’s maybe caused because we haven’t played in three weeks. “

Keenan says he will remain president and governor of the Trappers and run the team alongside his longtime colleagues Ted Meggs and Art Tiernay.

Keenan also admitted that he didn’t really even want to coach this season however he was forced to take the position when their targeted new head coach didn’t accept the job.

“I didn’t interfere when I was not coaching before,” Keenan said about his three year hiatus from coaching when Randy Sandvik was behind the bench for the Trappers a couple of seasons ago.

“I will have an input on who’s coming in and who’s going to be coaching we have an input on what our philosophy is going to be.”

While the talk around the Trappers organization is that assistant coach John Couch will take over from Keenan, the retiring coach would not confirm that yet but he said they will make an official announcement very soon.

Stars Shine over Canadiens

While the Trappers struggled in this tournament their Northern Sisters from the West finished the round robin tournament with a 5-1 record.

More details on the Sault Ste. Marie North Stars click
here.