THUNDER BAY – The goal-starved Thunder Bay Kings broke out of their scoring slump in a big way on Wednesday night.
The 2017 All Ontario Bantam AAA Championship hosts victimized the winless Fort Frances Canadians eight times in picking up their first win of the tournament, keeping their semifinal hopes alive at the same time.
Not bad for a team that had only found the back of the net three times in its first four games.
Michael Stubbs and Nicholas DeGrazia each tallied twice for the Stars in the 8-2 victory, while Alex Atwill scored once and added a pair of helpers and Matthew Halushak collected three assists.
“It’s good to get some confidence going into tomorrow because York’s a good team,” said Atwill, who had been held off the score sheet to date in the seven-team tournament.
The Kings (1-2-2) are tied with Ottawa for the final playoff spot, the Jr. 67s with a final game left on Thursday against the North Bay Trappers (2-1-1).
A tie might get Thunder Bay into the semifinal and a win over York-Simcoe (4-1-0), a team they tied 3-3 in their only meeting this season, almost certainly would.
“We need points against them to get in,” Atwill said.
Halushak said it was great to see the pucks finally start touching the twine.
“It does build the confidence and it feels good to get the win under our belts. I feel like we’re going to be rolling into tomorrow against York-Simcoe,” he said.
Owen Perala, easily the Kings best player this week, opened the scoring at the 4:40 mark of the first, beating Canadians goalie Isaac Fagnilli for his third goal of the tournament. DeGrazia would add his first of the night with 3:18 to go in the period and the home side led 2-0 after one.
They’d score three more in the second, Stubbs scoring back-to-back markers five minutes apart and Atwill roofing one on the power play with 1:59 to go.
Fort Frances finally got on the board in the third, Dylan Winsor potting his first of two on the night, barreling into Stephan Bourgeois, the puck sliding underneath the Kings netminder three minutes into the final period.
Nik Campbell and Alex Pineau added two more for Thunder Bay before Winsor struck again, the Canadians up a man. DeGrazia wrapped up the scoring late in the period.
It was just the game his team needed, said Kings coach Ed Atwill, father of Alex.
“It takes the pressure off some of the guys who want to score goals. And for the team it loosens us up a bit, hopefully, for tomorrow so we can pop a few in tomorrow,” the elder Atwill said.
The Kings/York-Simcoe tilt is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Fort Frances wraps up its week at 11 a.m. against Cambridge.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Thunder Bay, Perala 3 (Sedgwick) 4:40. 2. Thunder Bay, DeGrazia (unassisted) 11:22. Penalties: Stevenson FF (slashing) 12:56, Lampi TB (cross checking) 13:34.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. Thunder Bay, Stubbs (Halushak) 1:37. 4. Thunder Bay, Stubbs (Lampi, Hensrud) 6:34. 5. Thunder Bay, Atwill 1 (Halushak, Pineau) 13:01 pp. Penalties: Krassey FF (boarding) 12:23.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 6. Fort Frances, Winsor (Armstrong) 3:13. Thunder Bay, Campbell (Atwill) 4:44. 8. Thunder Bay, Pineau (Atwill, Halushak) 7:56 pp. 9. Fort Frances, Winsor (unassisted) 10:16 pp. 10. Thunder Bay, DeGrazia (Campbell) 12:43. Penalties: Magill FF (slashing) 7:19, Kuuskivi TB (holding) 9:20.
GAME DATA – SOG – Fort Frances 1-7-13-21, Thunder Bay 13-10-7-30; Power play (goals-chances) – Fort Frances (1-2), Thunder Bay (2-3); Goaltenders – Fort Frances: Isaac Fagnilli, Thunder Bay: Stephan Bourgeois; A: 400 (estimated).
