THUNDER BAY – A disastrous third period has the Thunder Bay North Stars in an early playoff hole.
The English River Miners, keyed by a pair of Michael Di Lullo tallies, scored four straight times to open the final frame Saturday night and drew first blood with a 5-3 triumph in their best-of-seven Superior International Junior Hockey League semifinal in front of 700 fans at Fort William Gardens on Saturday night.
It’s something they’ll have to correct in a hurry if they want to advance beyond the opening round, said North Stars coach Jeremy Adduono.
“Anytime you’re up 2-1, at home in a playoff game, if you give up four goals in the third period you’re not going to win the hockey game,” Adduono said.
“We’ll look at some video and see where the breakdowns were. It looked to me like one of them we just kind of got outmuscled behind the goal line and two of them were just their guys driving hard to the paint and we weren’t able to control six. Unfortunately we gave up four in the third and it cost us.”
Brendan Gillis didn’t offer up any excuses.
The North Stars forward scored the go-ahead goal 8:42 into the second, firing a hard wrist shot high on English River goalie Michael Lenko, a lead the home side would carry into the third.
“Taking a lead into the third period in our home rink, we’ve got to hold that lead. That was not what we wanted and we’ve got to correct that for sure and have a way better third period,” he said.
“They just looked more hungry than us. We thought we could go in with the lead and lay off, but clearly they wanted it and scored a few goals on us quick.”
It was the Miners who struck first, captain Jared Janke beating North Stars goalie Jordan Elliott just 4:40 into the contest.
Thunder Bay’s Nicholas Nigro evened the score at the 12:21 mark, beating Lenko with a short from inside the right circle.
Tyler Minoletti, who later left the game with a cut under his eye after being hit by a puck, and Gillis had back-to-back chances to extend the Stars lead in the second, but were cut down by Lenko and nursed a one-goal advantage after 40 minutes. Brad Arabia was stopped on a breakaway early in the third.
That’s when disaster struck.
Di Lullo potted his first of two at 3:43 of the third, then four minutes later took a precision pass from Austin Kuhn and buried it, the Miners taking a 3-2 lead. Twenty-six seconds later it was Sidney Gladue’s turn and English River started to pull away. Janke would add his second of the night at 11:56, going high on Elliott, who made 29 saves on the night.
Jonathan Masters would get one back for Thunder Bay on the power play with just over five minutes to go, but it was all the North Stars offence could muster.
“We were able to get all four lines involved for most of the game and it gave us the ability in the third to roll our top three. I found we were able to find a little more energy than them, especially on our forecheck and it really paid off,” said Miners coach Derek Sweet-Coulter.
Game 2 goes Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Gardens.
Dryden 5, Fort Frances 1: SIJHL MVP Braeden Allkins scored a hat trick and the Ice Dogs took a 2-0 series lead in the SIJHL`s other semifinal.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. English River, Janke 1 (Gladue, Pereverzoff) 4:40. 2. Thunder Bay, Nigro 1 (Thrower) 12:21. Penalties: Bourk ER (slashing) 13:43, Masters TB (hooking) 18:15.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. Thunder Bay, Gillis 1 (Walsh, Arabia) 8:42. Penalties: Tisi ER (tripping) 6:38, Raposo ER (roughing) 8:18, Schlitt ER (boarding) 12:08.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 4. English River, Di Lullo 1 (Driedger, Kuhn) 3:43. 5. English River, Di Lullo (Kuhn) 7:48. 6. English River, Gladue (unassisted) 8:14. 7. English River, Janke (Tisi, Gladue) 11:56. Penalties: Driedger ER, Talakoski TB (roughing, cross checking) 7:48, Hintz ER (slashing) 8:25, Di Lullo ER (high sticking) 12:42, Schlitt ER (slashing) 16:39, Walsh TB (goaltender interference) 18:47, Masters TB (cross checking) 19:32.
GAME DATA – SOG – English River 11-12-11-34, Thunder Bay 14-13-11-38; Power plays (goals-chances) – English River (0-3), Thunder Bay (1-7); Goaltenders – English River: Michael Lenko, Thunder Bay: Jordan Elliott; A: 700.
