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Kings tie Halifax, earn first point of TELUS Cup

Mackenzie Sedgwick nets the equalizer midway through the second to secure 1-1 against Halifax.

THUNDER BAY – The Halifax Macs are now in must-win territory at the 2019 TELUS Cup.

The Atlantic representatives on Thursday couldn’t hold an early 1-0 lead against the host Thunder Bay Kings and had to settle for a 1-1 tie in Day 4 action at Fort William Gardens.

With the result, the Macs slipped to 1-2-1 and will have to beat a tough Calgary Buffaloes squad in Friday’s round-robin finale to advance to the medal round at the national midget hockey championship.

“Obviously it’s a little disappointing to know we could have put it into the empty net to maybe get us into the semifinals. But you can’t hang your head on it,” said Macs defenceman Zach Welsh.

“We know we have a big game tomorrow, so we’ll play big.”

It was a bit of a different story for Thunder Bay, who decided to go all out at the end in search of their first victory of the week, the lone team without one through the tournament's first three days.

The Kings were all but eliminated heading into the contest, needing to win both their final two games and navigate a mathematical formula that would have left Stephen Hawking scratching his head. So with a minute left in a 1-1 game, coach Darren Nicholas summoned goaltender Eric Vanska to the bench in favour of an extra attacker.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t even do the math. I just knew that we needed to win a game,” he said. “We’re trying to win. I told the kids before the game, I don’t know what the outcome is, even if we win both our games we still may not have a chance of playing on Saturday. But we’re going to try to win our games. I knew if we didn’t get two points we had no chance, so you to get the two points.

“I didn’t know if there was any implications on their side either. I didn’t look that far in advance.”

There were. A Halifax win would have exponentially increased their chances to advance, needing either a win or a Toronto loss to move on.

Out of the gate the Macs looked determined to find that victory..

Blue-liner Liam Keeping opened the scoring on the power play, 3:46 into the contest, a lead that held up past the midway point of the second, when Thunder Bay's Mackenzie Sedgwick banged home a rebound on the backhand, beating Halifax goalie Jacob Goobe at the 12:42 mark of the middle stanza.

Vanska stood tall the rest of the way for Thunder Bay, stopping 25 of 26 shots on the night, aided by the iron behind him on two occasions.

Cameron Brown nailed the post five minutes into the third and Mitch Comeau rang it off the crossbar with 1:47 to play.

Thunder Bay also got a bit of added goaltending help from defenceman Anthony Biniaris in the dying minutes of the contest and Vanska on the bench for an extra attacker.

Binairis stopped a sure-fire goal from denting the Fort William Gardens twine, ensuring the Kings picked up their first point of the six-team tournament.

“He’s done that a few times this year and he’s actually unbelievable at it. As soon as he sees there might be a possible shot he’s just on fire. He looks better than me out there. He made a few big saves. It was crazy.”

Getting that point was huge for morale, Vanska added.

“Obviously we wanted the two points, but we haven’t really gotten to play a whole game and show Thunder Bay how we can play. I felt like today we kind of took it to them and played a full 60 minutes,” he said.

The Kings wrap up TELUS Cup play on Friday at 6:30 p.m. against Magog, who improved to 4-0-0 with a 4-1 win over Toronto.

Toronto and Tisdale, both 2-2-0, will meet at 11 a.m. and the Macs and Buffaloes will play for the final semifinal berth at 3 p.m.

FIRST PERIOD
Scoring
: 1. Thunder Bay, Keeping 1 (Walsh, Brown) 3:46 pp.. Penalties: Stevenson TB (cross checking) 2:25, Walsh HFX (slashing) 7:44.

SECOND PERIOD
Scoring
:2. Thunder Bay, Sedgwick 1 (Cataldo, MacKenzie) 12:42. Penalties: None.

THIRD PERIOD
Scoring
: Penalties: Walsh HFX (hit to head) 8:07, Morriseau TB (cross checking) 16:51.

GAME DATASOG – Halifax 6-12-8-26, Thunder Bay 10-10-0-0; Power plays (goals-chances) – Halifax (1-1), Thunder Bay (0-1); Goaltenders – Halifax: Jacob Goobie, Thunder Bay: Eric Vanska; A: XXX.

 



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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