THUNDER BAY – Alex Maticic was probably the most motivated player on the ice on Saturday night.
It showed.
The Thunder Bay North Stars forward scored once and added an assist, but saved his best for last, potting the only goal of the shootout to vault his team to a 5-4 come-from-behind triumph over Maticic’s former team, the English River Miners (9-12-3).
The victory extended the North Stars (16-7-3) winning streak to six games.
No one was happier to see the shootout goal slip past Miners goalie Michael Lenko than Maticic, a 21-goal scorer with English River in 2015-16 who started the season with the Melville Millionaires of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
“For me, this is a team that I played for, so obviously it’s a little rougher for me to be out there. But trust me, it feels pretty good,” the 19-year-old Thunder Bay native said.
“It’s the first two games I’ve played against them in my hometown of Thunder Bay.”
With the ice chewed up, Maticic took a bit of a different tack than the other five shooters in the shootout, firing from long-range rather than trying to beat Lenko, who made 50 stops on the night, with his moves.
“Coming in I took and angle and the goalie did a great job covering the net. He took away the short side, which is where I wanted to shoot. He thought I was shooting shelf and he took that away. The five-hole opened up and I took my shot and it went in.”
Thunder Bay coach Rob DeGagne said Maticic, who has 11 goals this season was next on his list to shoot.
“Maticic’s good to that one side. But when I was looking on the bench, it didn’t look like he had any room to sneak that in there and he snuck it in there. I didn’t save him for that particular reason. He was the next guy I thought would give us the best chance to win,” DeGagne said.
It took a third-period comeback just to get into position to claim victory.
After the puck bounced off Owen Belisle late in the first to stake the Stars to a 1-0 lead, it was the Miners who took control.
Captain Jared Janke scored his 18th of the season with 27 seconds to go, then defenceman-turned –forward Sam Cirone edged English River in front just 35 seconds into the middle frame. Spencer Milen doubled the lead two-and-a-half minutes later.
Shane McKay got one back at 12:54 of the second, firing a puck from the corner that bounced off Lenko’s shoulder and across the goal line. But the Miners had the answer on the power play, Jacob Siebenga taking advantage of missed clearing opportunities by Alex Leonidas and Avery Siau, beating North Stars goalie Dougie Newhouse for a 4-2 lead.
DeGagne offered words of wisdom at the break.
“I just said there are three kinds of guys – you can make it happen, watch it happen or wonder what the heck happened. I said ‘go make it happen’ and they did. Our older guys stepped up, it was their time,” DeGagne said.
Brendan Gillis completed a tic-tac-toe play to halve the Miners lead 2:37 into the third, then with two opponents in the box, Maticic tied it at 17:42, Ryan Mignault blasting the puck off the end boads where it ricocheted straight to his teammate’s waiting stick.
Mignault had earlier in the third rang two pucks off the post.
Neither team scored in OT, though Brad Thrower had a glorious chance, unable to get a stick on a goal-mouth pass from Siau.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Thunder Bay, Belisle 9 (Maticic, Leonidas) 17:55 pp. 2. English River, Janke 18 (Siebenga, Fischer-Kobes) 19:33. Penalties: Turbide TB (boarding) 6:38, Erwin TB (boarding) 13:39, Ziobro ER (roughing after the whistle) 16:10.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 3. English River, Cirone 2 (Ziobro, Jennings) 0:35. 4. English River, Milne 4 (Wong) 3:05. 5. Thunder Bay, McKay 2 (Siau, J. Newhouse) 12:54. 6. English River, Siebenga (unassisted) 16:37pp . Penalties: Thrower TB (boarding) 1:08, Russel ER (tripping, unsportsmanlike conduct) 3:22, Tisi ER (cross checking) 7:46, McKay TB (slashing) 15:26, Tisi ER (cross checking), Maticic TB (roughing) 19:58.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring: 7. Thunder Bay, Gillis (Mignault, Thrower) 2:37. 8. Thunder Bay, Maticic (Newhouse, Mignault) 17:42 pp. Penalties: Rosolowski ER (hooking) 6:31, Turbide TB (roughing) 10:15, Ziobro ER (roughing) 12:58, Janke ER (cross checking, fighting major, game misconduct), Von Schoenberg TB (fighting major, game misconduct) 16:04, Rosolowski ER (cross checking) 17:09.
OVERTIME
Scoring: None. Penalties: None.
SHOOTOUT
- English River: Herringer (miss)
- Thunder Bay: Gillis (miss)
- English River: Fischer-Kobes (miss)
- Thunder Bay: Mignault (miss)
- English River: O’Neill (miss)
- Thunder Bay: Maticic (scores)
GAME DATA – SOG – English River 10-10-6-2-28, Thunder Bay 16-18-15-5-54; Power plays (goals-chances) – Engish River (1-5), Thunder Bay (2-8); Goaltenders – English River: Michael Lenko, Thunder Bay: Dougie Newhouse; A: 210.
