OLIVER PAIPOONGE – Mathieu Belanger hadn’t played competitive hockey in more than four months.
It sure didn’t look like it on Saturday night.
The Laval, Que. native, playing just his second game with the Superior International Junior Hockey League’s Red Lake Miners, scored twice, including the overtime winner, and added an assist on Saturday night, helping deliver a 6-5 road win that kept his team in the hunt for top spot in the standings.
Belanger, who started the season with the Summerside Western Capitals of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League, was acquired by Red Lake on Oct. 15, but due to work commitments and personal reasons, he sat out most of the 2021-22 season.
His resume this season included just six games prior to joining the SIJHL club on Friday night, but he made a great first impression when he finally did arrive.
“It feels good to be back, honestly,” Belanger said. “I was a little gassed to be honest, but I fell in love with hockey again.
Asked if he expected to contribute so quickly, the 20-year-old centre said he was hoping he would, but wasn’t necessarily expecting it against the SIJHL’s top-ranked Kam River Fighting Walleye.
To do it in a game that saw the Miners (23-4-2) surrender a 3-0 lead to the Walleye, and his contributions be a key part in the comeback win, was fantastic.
But it was also a team effort, he said.
“We showed character and that’s what we’ll need in the playoffs too,” Belanger said.
“We’ve got to get ready for that. We played good in the second period and third period. We bared down.”
The first 26 minutes of the contest was all Walleye.
Playing in front of a capacity crowd at the Norwest Arena, they took a 1-0 lead after one on a Christian Veneruzzo tally, the goal coming with a pair of Miners players in the penalty box.
Calvin Morrow doubled the lead 3:26 into the second and Fighting Walleye captain Zach Fortin ripped as shot through traffic that eluded Red Lake goaltender Jaxson Taupert at 6:29.
Cue the Miners comeback.
Spurred on by a fight between teammate Elliot Parker and Kam River’s Anthony Oviedo, Ryan Hunter and Jordan Barenesky executed a 2-on-0 breakaway to perfection, Hunter slamming his 24th of the season behind a zig-zagging Austin Madge.
Brady Harroun cut the gap to one, completing a pretty three-way passing play, burying a pass from Hunter to make it 3-2.
It only took seven seconds into the third for Red Lake to even it up, Lucas Piekarczyk firing a shot from centre ice that evaded Madge.
The Miners took a 4-3 lead when Fortin’s shot from the right circle fooled Taupert, but the Miners kept pushing and tied it when Baranesky pounced on a shot deflected by Harroun, the power-play goal coming at 9:59. Belanger skated wide and fended off a Kam River defender to give the Miners their first lead of the night with 6:30 to go in regulation, but Kersey Reich fired high on Taupert to send the game to overtime, the goal coming at the 16:14 mark.
Once they got on the board, they knew they could take it, Baranesky said.
“It was kind of like a snowball effect that got us going. I think that fight kind of got us going too,” said Baranesky, who upped his goal-scoring streak to 11 games, a stretch that’s seen him average three points a night to take over the SIJHL scoring lead.
He had four points in his latest contest.
Fortin, the Fighting Walleye captain said they should have been able to hold the lead, but they’ll learn from the loss.
“It’s just a game of bounces. We were ahead of them and maybe that fight might have gave them a bit of momentum. I believe that we needed to have a bit more push-back and I think when we play them next Thursday we’ll come out just as hard as we did in the first period.”
It was the second loss in three outings for Kam River (28-4-2).
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Kam River, Veneruzzo 4 (Reich, Enegren) 7:27 pp. Penalties: Goodman KFW (slashing ) 1:22, Dickie RLM (slashing), J. Parker RLM (unsportsmanlike conduct) 7:01,Wiseman KFW (head contact, misconduct, served by Crysler) 17:26.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 2. Kam River, Morrow 4 (Veneruzzo, Reich) 3:26. 3. Kam River, Fortin 7 (Lamoureux, Gallaher) 6:29. 4. Red Lake, Hunter 24 (Baranesky, Darmenov) 8:59. 5. Red Lake, Harroun (Hunter, Howe) 14:19 pp. Penalties: E. Parker RLM, Oviedo KFW (fighting major, game misconduct) 8:00, McNeil KFW (hooking) 12:27.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 6. Red Lake, Piekarczyk 14 (Belanger) 0:07. 7. Kam River, Fortin 8 (Lamoureux, Enegren) 2:14. 8. Red Lake, Baranesky 28 (Harroun, Hunter) 9:59 pp. 9. Red Lake, Belanger 1 (Baranesky, Piekarczyk) 13:30. 10. Red Lake, Reich 6 (Gorst, Dunmore) 16:14 pp. Penalties: Moisey RLM (roughing) 2:04, Wiseman KFW (interference) 8:16, Darmenov RLM (boarding) 15:56, Veneruzzo KFW (head check, misconduct, served by Duchesne) 18:32.
OVERTIME
Scoring: 11. Red Lake, Belanger 2 (Baranesky, Hunter) 0:37. Penalties: None.
GAME DATA – SOG – Red Lake 11-13-13-3-40 Kam River 10-15-14-0-39; Power plays (goals-chances) – Red Lake (2-5), Kam River (3-4); Goaltenders – Red Lake: Jaxson Taupert, Kam River: Austin Madge; A: 275.
