The two AAA Trappers squads wearing the same emblem on their jerseys went toe-to-toe at the Powassan Sportsplex on the weekend.
In Saturday's opener the U18 pulled out a tight 4-2 win in a goaltenders dual between U18's Michael Purkhart and the U16's Jackson Curran.
The two teams exchanged first period goals as affiliate Cain Savage scored off a draw for the U18 Trappers thanks to a nifty feed from Jesse Lefebvre.
U16 sniper Brant Romaniuk evened the contest as he snuck behind a defender and went in all alone beating Purkhart high to even the contest at 1-1.
Nate Gravelle's late second-period goal on a perfect feed in the slot from Anthony Boyes gave the Trappers a 2-1 lead late in the second period beating the U16 Trappers talented OHL draft prospect Curran.
Ethan Boyes and Johnny Couch scored empty net goals late in the game.
Mathieu Seguin scored in the final minute after the two empty netters to round out the scoring.
Curran, the game's first star faced more than 40 shots in the setback while Purkhart made more than 30 stops for the U18 win.
Trappers Goal explosion
The Sunday game was a different story as the U18 Trappers came back from a 3-2 first period deficit scoring 11 unanswered goals in a 13-3 win for the U18 Trappers over the U16's.
Anthony Boyes led the offensive charge with three goals while Jesse Lefebvre, Nate Gravelle and Cayden Kowal had two goals each. Single tallies went to Ethan Boyes, Josh Currie and Johnny Couch. Justin Rousseau had one goal and two assists, while Ayden Thomason and Davis Anello had two assists each in the win.
Jackson Culin, Mathieu Seguin and Bryden Shank scored the U16 goals; all in the opening frame.
The U16's battled hard with multiple third period scoring chances that were missed or turned away by netminder Purkhart who was pulled at the end of the first period before returning to action in the second and kept the U16s off the scoresheet the rest of the way.
Owan Heroux suffered the loss in goal for the U16 Trappers and was lifted late in the second period before returning for the third period.
The two victories improve the U18 Trappers' record to 7-2 on the year while the U16 Trappers fell to 1-7-0-1.
The U16 look to find the win column by hosting a pair of weekend games at Memorial Gardens against the Timmins Majors (Saturday and Sunday), however, their next action is on the road Wednesday night in Sudbury when they face the Sudbury U16 AAA Nickel Capitals.
Meantime the U18 Trappers head west to square off against the unbeaten Soo U18 AAA Greyhounds in Sault Ste. Marie.
