THUNDER BAY – Never count the Kam River Fighting Walleye out.
Down two goals late in the second period, knowing a Game 5 loss would end the second-year team’s championship dreams, the Fighting Walleye rallied on home ice, Anthony Oviedo deflecting home what proved to be the game winner with 7:25 to go in regulation, delivering a 7-5 win Tuesday night over the Red Lake Miners at the Norwest Arena.
It was a roller coaster ride from start to finish for a Kam River team that lost the first three games of the best-of-seven series, but have now battled back to force a Game 6 Saturday night in Red Lake. After taking a 3-1 lead in the first, thanks to a pair of Trenton Morriseau tallies, the Fighting Walleye surrendered four straight to the powerful Red Lake offence and trailed 5-3 with 8:37 left in the second.
Carson Gorst cut the lead to 5-4 at 14:32 of the second and Jeremy Dunmore evened things at five apiece early in the third, the second of four straight the Fighting Walleye would muster to close out the back-and-forth contest.
Never say die, said Gorst, who finished with a goal and three assists.
“Honestly, I can’t even describe it. I don’t think at one point that the boys thought they were out. It was kind of a roller coaster and what goes down must come up, right? It just felt good to keep putting the puck in the net ... It took a team to win and I think that’s what we did,” Gorst said.
Must-win situations require resilience and character, and that’s just what Matt Valley said his team delivered in front of 911 Fish Tank fans.
“We picked it up. Seven goals against that team is something to be proud of. Usually if you’re giving up five, you’re not very proud of the performance, but boy, we’re super proud. To outscore them 3-0 in the third shows that resilience and character that we preach about and it finally showed up in this series,” Valley said.
It was all Brady Harroun in the first 25 minutes of the game.
The Red Lake forward scored a hat trick, opening the scoring at 1:54 of the first, closing out a six-goal first at 14:32 to tie the game 3-3 and giving the Miners their second lead of the night 5:39 into the second.
Ryan Hunter doubled the Miners lead at 11:23 of the middle stanza and it was starting to look like Red Lake might be en route to its first SIJHL championship.
But it was not to be, at least on this night.
“We have our backs against the wall and we knew we had to win,” said Morriseau, whose two first-period goals give him four in the postseason.
“We came and fought and battled and came out with the W.”
The Fighting Walleye simply wasn’t ready for their season to end, especially knowing it would have been the last junior game for a handful of veteran teammates.
“You’ve just got to leave it all out there for them. We don’t want to be done this early. We want to come back with Bill and we had to leave it all on the ice and I think we did that.”
Bill, of course, is the Bill Salonen Cup, the trophy the two teams are chasing, the win also earning them an automatic berth at the Centennial Cup.
Morriseau and Dayton Clarke hit the post on back-to-back chances in the third, the game tied 5-5,but it was Oviedo who netted the winner, deflecting the puck over the shoulder of Red Lake goaltender Kiev Kineshanko, who faced 46 shots on the night.
Eric Vanska made 35 saves for Kam River.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Red Lake, Harroun 3 (Pool) 1:54. 2. Kam River, Morriseau 3 (Dunmore, Reich) 5:03 pp. 3. Kam River, Veneruzzo 1 (Gorst, Reich) 8:40 pp. 4. Kam River, Morriseau 4 (Clarke) 10:04. 5. Red Lake, J. Parker 3 (E. Parker, Albrecht) 13:13. 6. Red Lake, Harroun 4 (Nyman) 14:32. Penalties: Belanger RLM (boarding) 3:27, Belanger RLM (slashing), Piekarczyk RLM, Morriseau KRW (roughing) 7:01, McNeil KRW (boarding) 10:46.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 7. Red Lake, Harroun 5 (Piekarczyk, Rossetti) 5:39 pp. 8. Red Lake, Hunter 4 (Howe, Baranesky) 11:23 pp. 9. Kam River, Gorst 4 (Dunmore, Gallaher) 14:32. Penalties: Dunmore KRW (misconduct) 2:25, Fortin KRW (tripping) 3:53, Veneruzzo KRW (roughing) 10:13.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 10. Kam River, Dunmore 5 (Morriseau, Gorst) 4:28. 11. Kam River, Ovideo 1 (Gallaher, Veneruzzo) 12:35, 12. Kam River, Enegren 2 (Dunmore) 19:33. Penalties: E. Parker RLM (cross checking, misconduct), McNeil KRW (cross checking) 19:44.
GAME DATA – SOG – Red Lake 15-14-11-40, Kam River 16-13-17-46; Power plays (goals-chances) – Red Lake (2-3), Kam River (2-2); Goaltenders – Red Lake: Kiev Kineshanko, Kam River: Eric Vanska; A: 911.
