THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay North Stars can have the Teleco Cup. The Kam River Walleye are a lot happier with a six-point to three-point edge in the standings.
The latest two came in thrilling fashion on Saturday night, defenceman Joe McCollum turning and firing high to beat Thunder Bay goaltender Jacob Stone and deliver a 6-5 overtime win for the first-year Fighting Walleye (3-1-0).
He got the chance thanks to standout goaltending from rookie Eric Vanska, who stopped 49 shots to earn the win in his first Superior International Junior Hockey League regular-season start.
Vanska made several key saves in overtime, including back-to-back on sniper Nikolas Campbell, who was stoned twice alone on the Kam River goaltender.
“I was just happy that we could pull that off. It was close there at the end. They had a good push and the boys showed even better character than they were showing and we were bearing down in the last bit. It was fun to be a part of,” said McCollum, who returned to his hometown this season with the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19.
The winning goal came with just 1.2 seconds left and he said he was thinking goal all the way.
“I think you always think goal when it's in overtime. If you've got a chance, you've got to make the best out of your chance. We played hard and our efforts paid off,” McCollum said.
The Stars, who won the Teleco Cup with seven points in the eight games (the first four only counted for a point), made things interesting, scoring three times in 25 seconds in the third to erase a three-goal deficit and send the game to an extra frame, deadlocked 5-5.
“I could lie to you and say there's not a little part of me that said oh (shoot),” Vanska said of the onslaught, led by a pair of Michael Stubbs tallies that sandwiched Leeam Tivers' second of the night and fourth of the young campaign.
“But once we started playing a little bit and started getting pucks back out I just calmed down and realized it's just play your game.”
That's just what the Fighting Walleye did all night long.
Outshot badly in the first, it was Kyle Swerhun who delivered the period's only goal, taking a pass in front of Stone and burying it with a high shot.
Christian Veneruzzo doubled the lead 2:23 into the second, but Tivers struck back with 6:03 to play in the period, bashing home a Jacob Anttonen rebound to make it 2-1.
McCollum needed less than a minute to restore the two-goal lead, circling backward before launching a high wrists shot through traffic.
Annttonen cut the lead once again with less than two minutes to go in the second. Moments after being stopped on a breakaway, he raced down the left side and blasted a shot that Vanska waved at, but couldn't snag and the Fighting Walleye's lead was cut to 3-2 after 40 minutes.
Carson Gorst doubled the lead at 7:16 of the third and Alex Enegren stole the puck from Rajvir Sangha and went five-hole on Stone to up the lead to 5-2.
“When you score a goal and go up 5-2 in the third you kind of expect it to be the one that puts the team away. But they battled back,” Enegren said.
“They may have won the trophy, but at the end of the day we came away with the 3-1 series win in the regular season, so we got those points. That's what we were looking to do. We were looking to make a statement ... and I think we did that today.”
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Kam River, Swerhun 1 (Ralph, Enegren) 11:48. Penalties: Anttonen TB (slashing) 4:18, Halushak TB (body checking) 5:29, Lang KR (tripping) 16:15.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 2. Kam River, Veneruzzo (Chisholm, Morriseau) 2:23. 3. Thunder Bay, Tivers 3 (Anttonen) 13:57. 4. Kam River, McCollum 1 (Veneruzzo, Gorst) 14:53. 5. Thunder Bay, Anttonen 3 (Tivers, T) 18:32. Penalties: Goodman KR (holding) 8:03, Leishman TB (interference) 8:30, Chisholm KR (interference), Leishman TB (high sticking) 18:57.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 6. Kam River, Gorst 2 (Lang, Smith) 7:16. 7. Kam River, Enegren 3 (unassisted) 9:44 pp. 8. Thunder Bay, Stubbs 1 (Halushak, Leishman) 10:06 pp. 9. Thunder Bay, Tivers 4 (Halushak, Bertrand) 10. Thunder Bay, Stubbs 2 (Leishman, Campbell) 10:31. Penalties: Pitawanakwat KR (slashing) 2:13, Gorst KR (hooking) 8:13, R. Cardinal TB (tripping) 11:44, Pitawanakwat KR (body checking) 15:48, Halushak TB (playing with broken stick) 17:29.
OVERTIME
Scoring: 11. Kam River, McCollum (Veneruzzo) 4:58. Penalties:
GAME DATA – SOG – Kam River 5-14-13-3-35, Thunder Bay 18-17-12-7-;54 Power plays (goals-chances) – Kam River (0-5), Thunder Bay (1-5); Goaltenders: Kam River: Eric Vanska, Thunder Bay: Jacob Stone; A: 50.
