Either Liam Coulter has the fastest feet in hockey or the Thunder Bay Kings got robbed.
It likely cost them a shot at the Bantam AAA provincial championship.
Tied 3-3, with momentum clearly on their side, Coulter deflected a David Simpson shot off his feet and into the Ottawa Valley Titans net early in the third period Thursday afternoon, but referee Kyle Brend ruled he made a kicking motion and waved it off.
Ottawa’s Connor Cobbold then scored the winner with a minute to go in the contest, with goalie Nicholas Hodgins on the bench in favour of an extra attacker. Kevin Groulx iced it with an empty netter to make the final 5-3.
A tie would have guaranteed a spot in the semifinal.
Coulter couldn’t believe the call.
“I was just in the front of the net and it happened to go off my skate and it went through. And I guess the ref thought I kicked it in or something. But I don’t know how I could kick it in off a rocket like that,” he said, denying he made any kicking motion at all.
“No, I didn’t even know it was going to hit my foot. It just went off and through his leg.”
It was not a happy Thunder Bay coach Vern Ray who met with media after the contest.
“As far as I’m concerned they had a possible championship berth stolen away from them in that game and that’s not acceptable,” Ray said, moments after screaming some choice words through the on-ice official’s dressing room door, restrained by his assistant coaches from taking it any further.
“The goal that was called back clearly went off their guy. I don’t even know how he could call it from where he was standing. He was behind where the shot was coming from and there was such a scrum. I don’t know. I told them to keep their heads up and pray for the best this afternoon with the Hamilton game.”
Needing help to get to the final four, the Kings came up short when Hamilton fell 3-0 on Thursday afternoon to Elgin-Middlesex, followed by Sault Ste. Marie's 3-0 win over the Northwestern Ontario All-Stars. Both winning teams leapfrogged Thunder Bay (3-3), grabbing the last two available berths.
Mississauga and Ottawa are the other semifinalists.
Thunder Bay fought valiantly in this one, three times erasing one-goal Ottawa leads.
Ottawa’s Owen McDade opened the scoring at 3:09 of the first, the lone goal of the period.
Nicholas Nigro evened the score 75 seconds in to the second, but McDade put the Titans back on top two minutes later, firing a wrist shot past Kings goalie Nathan Dupuis.
McDade’s second came on the power play, after a controversial boarding call sent Matthew Sutor to the penalty box.
To make matters worse a Thunder Bay player had been tackled near his own net, sending the Titans on a 5-on-3 break.
Brad Arabia and Cobbold traded goals to make it 3-2 Ottawa after two. Arabia, from a sharp angle, scored 1:31 into the final stanza to tie the score at three.
