Trappers salvage OT win vs. Beavers

Trappers forward Justin Dicks is denied on a penalty shot in the first period of Wednesday Night's 4-3 OT win over the Blind River Beavers. Photo by Paul Soucy.

North Bay dominated the early part of the game, out-shooting Blind River an astounding 16-4 throughout the first frame. However, the Trappers seemed to fall apart later in the game – blowing a 3-1 lead in the final 10 minutes of the third and allowing the tying marker with just 4 seconds left on the clock.

However, the Trappers didn't allow the Beavers to complete the comeback as Matt Weisenel scored his first ever Jr. ‘A’ goal at 2:10 of the overtime period as North Bay skated to a 4-3 OT win Wednesday night at Memorial Gardens.

Stan Smrke, Darnell Koosees and Jonathon Aubertin did the scoring in regulation for the Trappers.

Coach Ian Swalucynski claimed his team was ‘uneasy’ because they were without starting goalie, Michael Mitchell who is back home in Thunder Bay getting an MRI.

“When your number one goalie goes down you’re not as confident right off the hop,” Swalucynski said. “It’s a little bit unknown, especially because he (Marcus Leikkari) came in late.”

Blowing a 2-goal third-period lead is a sure way to frustrate your coach, and Ian Swalucynski is no different.

“We put those guys out there because we thought they could do a job in our end and they never did,” Swalucynski said. “So it was frustrating.”

The Trappers locker-room knew they needed to redeem themselves after coughing up a 2-goal lead late in the game.

“We didn’t want to go to a shootout,” OT hero, Matt Weisenel said. “We knew we had to take care of it in OT.”

Weisensel added his team needs to play a complete game in order to compete deep into the playoffs.

“We’ve got to put together a 60-minute effort,” Weisensel said. “You saw the consequences of not putting together a 60-minute effort.”

Swalucynski said his team is a lot better than people in North Bay give them credit for.

“We’re 28-13-2 for a reason,” Swalucynski said. “We’re a damn good hockey team. When we believe it, we’re going to be the ones playing in March and April.”

The Trappers’ (28-13-2) coach admitted his team may have a rough go of gunning for Abitibi and first place.

“It’s going to be hard,” Swalucynski said of the task. “I think we blew our chance when we lost 4-1 at home to them (Abitibi) a couple weeks ago.”

Playing games how they did Wednesday night may not cut it versus Abitibi in the playoffs.

“We’ve got to puick it up against Abitibi,” Weisensel said. “Division rivals. Every game is going to be a war.”

Scoring Summary

1st period

NB Stan Smrke (Guimond, Aubertin) 15:57; NB Darnell Koosess (Cere, Rudiger) at 17:51.

2nd period

BR Drew MacMillan (Pascall, Findlay) 00:40; NB Jonathon Aubertin (Zawacki) 7:14.

3rd period

BR Andrew Trecroce (Barrett) 10:11; BR Josh McCully (MacMillan)19:56.

Overtime

NB Matt Weisensel (Barron) 2:10

The game’s three stars were:

(1) Marcus Leikkari (North Bay)
(2) Bobby Raine (Blind River)
(3) Matt Weisensel(North Bay)

Ian Swalucynski announced after the game that the team has signed goalie Ryan Fitzsimonds.