FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION – The Thunder Bay Kings gave themselves a chance to advance at the Telus Cup Western Regional on Friday night.
Jordan Smith made 30 stops to power the host Major Midget Kings to a 3-0 win over the Kenora Thistles, the Hockey Northwestern Ontario representatives, setting up a one-game showdown on Saturday against a powerful Notre Dame Hounds team for an opportunity to play in Sunday’s final.
The Kings, who evened their record, still don’t have an easy path to a championship, but forward Kyle Swerhun and his teammates wanted was a chance.
Now they’ve got it.
“We needed this one tonight and even though we still need help, even if we do beat Notre Dame, it’s a big one,” said Swerhun, who opened up the scoring after a scoreless first, pouncing on his own rebound and sliding it past Kenora goalie Matthew Booth with 3:45 to go in the second.
Earlier in the period he rang the puck off the post.
Kings forward Michael Vecchio, who doubled the Kings lead five minutes into the third on another second chance opportunity, said it was a good win, against a pesky opponent that matched Thunder Bay hit for hit in a rough-and-tumble match that threatened to get ugly in its latter stages.
“We all came ready to the game. We all played our hardest. They have a good team,” Swerhun said, admitting he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the puck crash the twine for the second time.
“It was big. I think that took some of the weight off our shoulders.”
The Kings are now 1-1 at the four-day event, tied with the Winnipeg Wild, who earlier in the day fell 4-3 to the Hounds.
Coach Darrin Nicholas wasn’t worry too much about his team’s championship game possibilities, saying he won’t pull out the calculator unless they get the job done against Notre Dame on Saturday.
It’s not going to be easy.
The Hounds rolled over the Thistles 11-0 on Saturday and until proven otherwise, are the team to beat this week.
It starts in net.
“It’ll have to be a heroic effort, I think,” Nicholas said. “I thought Jordan was really solid tonight and that’s the type of performance we’ve come to expect from him. I wouldn’t say he won us the game tonight, but he certainly earned every save and every bit of that shutout he got. He made four or five big saves in that third period.”
The Kings could get to the championship game with a Winnipeg loss and a win or a tie against Notre Dame. Should the Wild defeat Kenora, it gets trickier and involves a formula that tallies the total goals scored against the teams in the tiebreaker and divides it by the total goals scored and against in those games.
The math suggests a 5-2 or 6-3 win would probably be enough for Thunder Bay to advance.
Nicholas knows it won’t be easy.
“We’ve got to get the guys with their fingers on the pulse of the game,” he said. “I really wasn’t happy with that scrum in the last minute-and-a-half. It was really unnecessary. It’s a learning process for our kids, but they’ve got to understand what the mood of the game is.
“I know our penalty kill has been pretty good over the last two nights. I think we’re 15-for-16 in the two games, but I don’t think we kill off seven penalties against Notre Dame.”
Jeff Gula iced it for the Kings with an insurance marker late in the third.
Puck drop is Saturday at 3 p.m. at Fort William First Nation Arena.
