THUNDER BAY – Never say never.
For now, that’s the Thunder Bay North Stars mantra.
It has to be.
The Stars, down 3-0 to the Sioux Lookout Bombers in their best-of-seven Superior International Junior Hockey League semifinal, twice on Tuesday night found themselves down a pair of goals.
Giving up isn’t in their vocabulary.
Twice they rallied back to tie the Bombers, Tyler Jordan ultimately sending the game to overtime when he deflected the puck past Jack Osmond with just 55 seconds left in regulation.
It set the stage for unheralded forward Cohen Tangedal, who scored the overtime winner at 17:02 of the first extra period, his North Stars teammates pouring over the Fort William Gardens boards and mobbing him off to Osmond's left to celebrate the season-saving 6-5 win.
“All the teammates coming to be in the corner was probably the best thing I’ve ever experienced in my life in hockey,” said Tangedal, a 10-goal scorer in the regular season.
“It was super exciting … That’s definitely the biggest goal I’ve ever scored in my career.”
The deflection, off a shot by rookie Luke Bailey, kept the North Stars season alive, a night after they fell into a 3-0 hole, allowing the Bombers to rally back from three goals down to capture Game 3 in overtime.
“It’s always nice when you win,” said North Stars coach Rob DeGagne, looking to take his team to the SIJHL final for a second straight year.
“All the games have been so good, they’ve been so close. After losing last night the way we did, it was sure nice to get the win, for sure, for the boys, for the fans. You hate to lay an egg and go four straight. A little momentum goes a long way, so you never know.”
A year ago Thunder Bay found themselves down 3-1 to Dryden in the semifinal round and wound up taking the series.
Tangedal said the team would be happy to repeat that effort.
They just can’t get ahead of themselves.
“We just take it one game at a time and just focus on all the little things – don’t get too caught up in all the junk, just focus on getting shots on the net, getting to the net, getting rebounds. That’s how we win.”
For a second straight night, the Stars struck first, rookie-of-the-year Easton Mikus burying a rebound, the result of E.J. Paddington’s wraparound attempt.
Thunder Bay held the Bombers without a shot for the first 10-plus minutes of the first, but when they did finally start getting pucks on Keenan Marks, they made them count. Cobe Delaney finished off a two-on-one and scored on their first shot. Less than a minute later Jonah Smith took advantage of a bad bounce that caught Marks out of position, the wide-open net too inviting a target to miss.
Owen Riffel, who led the SIJHL in goals with 34, made it 3-1 on the power play with 6:11 left in the first and after 20 minutes, Marks was pulled in favour of back-up Ben Laurette.
Thunder Bay's Edison Weeks got one back 90 seconds into the second and Tangedal, who had yet to score in seven playoff games, evened the score at the 4:17 mark, banking a shot off Osmond, one of 55 shots he faced on the night.
Connor Burke and Riffel scored five minutes apart to put Sioux Lookout up a pair after two, but Mikus struck again on the power play at 8:42 of the third and Tyler Jordan deflected a shot past Osmond at 19:05 to even things at five apiece.
“They never gave up,” DeGagne said. “When your back is against the wall, it’s amazing what you can do.”
The Stars will travel to Sioux Lookout on Thursday for Game 5. Game 6, if necessary, goes Saturday at the Gardens.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Thunder Bay, Mikus 5 (Paddington 4:50. 2. Sioux Lookout, Delaney 5 (Cotter, Bull) 10:34. 3. Sioux Lookout, Smith 6 (Riffel) 11:27. 4. Sioux Lookout, Riffel 5 (Lucas, C. Burke) 13:49 pp. Penalties: Bannerman SLB (holding) 7:37, Glousher TB (hooking) 12:34
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 5. Thunder Bay, Weeks (Mikus, Caddo) 1:30. 6. Thunder Bay, Tangedal (Voisey, Bear) 4:17. 7. Sioux Lookout, C. Burke (Lone, Smith) 6:54. 8. Sioux Lookout, Riffel (Smith) 11:28. Penalties: None.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 9. Thunder Bay, Mikus 6 (Dial, Skillestad) 8:42 pp. 10. Thunder Bay, Jordan (Dial, Paddington) 19:05. Penalties: Bench minor SLB (too many men, served by Love) 8:28, Lone SLB (unsportsmanlike conduct) 13:45, Lucas SLB (hooking) 14:35.
OVERTIME
Scoring: 11. Thunder Bay, Tangedal 2 (Bailey, Buffone) 17:02. Penalties: Bailey TB (hooking 10:17,
GAME DATA – SOG – Sioux Lookout 6-13-9-10-38, Thunder Bay 13-16-20-6-55; Power plays (goals-chances) – Sioux Lookout (0-2), Thunder Bay (1-3); Goaltenders – Sioux Lookout: Jack Osmond, Thunder Bay: Keenan Marks (six shots, three saves), Ben Laurette (0:00, second); A: 692.
