THUNDER BAY – Alex Maticic could get used to playing three-on-three hockey.
With a little extra room to maneuver on Saturday night, the veteran Thunder Bay North Stars forward rolled out from the corner, skated across the middle and fired a wrist shot past Dryden Ice Dogs goaltender Justin Anderson, the overtime winner giving the Stars a 4-3 win over the No. 7 team in the nation.
“There’s nothing really to say about it,” said Maticic, a Thunder Bay native who spent two seasons with the Superior International Junior Hockey League’s English River Miners and two more with the Melville Millionaires of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League before returning to his hometown this fall.
“I came through, picked up the puck and carried it around. I had the whole net open so I just shot the pick. That was about it.”
The game would never have gotten to an extra frame if it weren’t for teammate Owen Belisle, younger brother of former North Stars Bradley Belisle and an eighth-round pick last spring of the Ontario Hockey League’s North Bay Battalion.
Belisle twice score the tying goal for the Stars in the third period, jumping on a loose puck to knot the score 2-2 at 13:11 of the final period. Then, after Bryce McDonald nudged the Ice Dogs in front again just 80 seconds later, Belisle was at it again.
This time the 6-foot-2, 208-pound forward used his size to find pay dirt.
It’s part of his game plan.
“I just stake my big body in front of the net and deflect pucks, bang whatever I see in.”
That’s just what coach Rob DeGagne is hoping for from his rookie forward, who could wind up in the OHL as soon as next season if his good play continues.
“He’s got a great shot. He’s got a very hard shot and he’s just going to the right areas. He’s going to the dirty areas and that’s where you score goals, right?”
Rookie Dillon Ward gave Thunder Bay the early lead in a slow starting first that saw no shots in the first four minutes of play. Ward potted his fourth of the season, burying a rebound with a wrist shot that flew past Anderson into the twine.
The Ice Dogs (6-0-2), yet to lose in regulation, tied things up with just over three minutes to go in the first, Eric Stout crossing in front of Thunder Bay goalie Dougie Newhouse and firing it home.
Malcolm Huemmert, who had a goal waved off late in the third, tallied the go-ahead goal at 9:54 of the second, scoring on a wrist shot from the blue-line that wound its way through traffic and past Newhouse.
The Stars (4-3-1) didn’t even record their first shot of the second until 16 minutes in, Brad Thrower stopped on a breakaway, the first of three breakaways he’d fail to score on in a nine-minute span.
The North Stars’ Shaun McKay was tossed in the second for a nasty retaliatory cross check, a game that threatened to get more physical than it actually did.
“It was a chippy game,” DeGagne said. “But it was a good, fast game at first. It was a good effort from us. We could have folded the tent a few times.”
First Period
Scoring: 1. Thunder Bay, Ward 4 (Belisle, Muir) 9:19. 2. Dryden, Stout 6 (McDonald) 16:28. Penalties: Huemmert DRY (misconduct), Jay DRY (roughing, misconduct), Siau TB (roughing, misconduct) 6:34, Atanas DRY (slashing) 10:05, Thrower TB (tripping) 13:14, Palermo DRY (cross checking) 13:48, Lockard DRY (holding) 18:13, Bracko DRY (tripping) 19:45.
Second Period
Scoring: 3. Dryden, Huemmert 3 (McDonald) 9:54. Penalties: Pellerin TB (cross checking) 2:54, Kavanaugh DRY (hooking) 6:18, J. Newhouse TB (slashing) 11:16, Bellerose DRY (roughing), Walls DRY (slashing), McKay TB (cross checking major, game misconduct) 17:39.
Third Period
Scoring: 4. Thunder Bay, Belisle 2 (Gillis, Roitelman) 13:11. 5. Dryden, McDonald 2 (Huemmert, Jay) 14:31. 6. Thunder Bay, Belisle 3 (Newhouse, Gillis) 17:01. Penalties: Walls DRY (slashing) 1:34, Corness TB (roughing) 9:22, Kavanaugh DRY (slashing) 11:35, Hamlin (cross checking) 14:57.
Overtime
Scoring: 7. Thunder Bay, Maticic (unassisted) 3:39. Penalties: None.
GAME DATA – SOG – Dryden 6-12-12-2-32, Thunder Bay 10-6-16-4-36; Power plays (goals-chances) – Dryden (0-5), Thunder Bay (0-8); Goaltenders – Dryden: Justin Anderson, Thunder Bay: Doug Newhouse; A: 285.
