The Thunder Bay North Stars are down, but not out.
Swept from hunt for the Bill Salonen Cup courtesy of Thursday's 5-2 Game 4 loss to the Wisconsin Wilderness at Fort William Gardens, the Stars have more than three weeks to lick their wounds and recover before hosting the Dudley Hewitt Cup.
The 4-0 series loss wasn't exactly what North Stars coach Lonny Bohonos had in mind, even though he was taking on the Superior International Junior Hockey League's top-rated squad, the fourth-ranked squad in the Canadian Junior Hockey League.
"I gotta give them a lot of credit. They're a very good hockey club. I'm very proud of how they came back in the third period to tie it up. But tonight just wasn't our night and we'll just get past this," said Bohonos, who took over the North Stars coaching reins in the final month of the regular season and led them to a sweep of Duluth in the opening round of the playoffs.
"We've got three weeks of a lot of hard work for the Dudley Hewitt."
The second-chance silver lining doesn't look all that shiny to Bohonos right now after falling to the Wilderness, a team they beat just twice in 14 meetings in 2011-12, including the four playoff losses.
"I think we should have kept playing the whole way, that was the whole point," he said. "It's not good sitting around and not playing for three weeks. It's not good for our hockey club and we're going to have to be creative in our practices and what we're doing and make sure the guys are ready for the first game."
Wisconsin forward Wilson Housley, whose famous father Phil was at Fort William Gardens watching the Wilderness close out the semifinal series and advance to the final against second-place Fort Frances, said it was a relief to finish is off fast.
"It feels great to get this series done in four games. We've got a lot of injured guys. We're working hard every day, but Fort is obviously going to be a tough team. They've got a lot of tough guys on their team and they've been playing us hard every game we've played them," said Housley, who picked up an assist on Jordan Shockley's third-period winner.
Thunder Bay goalie Marc Nother was caught flat on the ice on the opening goal of the contest, Clark Anderson having no problem tapping home a Shane Topf cross-crease pass at 16:05 of the first, the only goal of the opening period.
Anderson would later add an empty netter for a second straight night to seal the win.
Two minutes into the second Mike Dietrich crashed through the crease and knocked it past Nother's whose stick was sailing toward the corner at the time of Wisconsin's second goal.
Thunder Bay, who out-shot their opponent 27-22 on the night, finally made one of their shots count at the 5:07 mark of the third when Brandon Wolframe, standing behind Wisconsin goalie Tanner Milliron's net, spotted Sam Dubinsky out front, the one-timer pulsing the twine and cutting the North Star deficit to a goal.
Quinn Rempel evened the score on the backhand 2:25 seconds later and the Stars appeared to have stolen the momentum. But it wouldn't last. At 8:58, just 1:26 after Rempels goal, Shockley potted the winner.
Nick Drill doubled the lead at 16:02, with Anderson completing the scoring with 47.5 left on the Gardens clock.
First period
Scoring: 1. Wisconsin, C. Anderson (Topf) 16:25. Penalties: Shockley WIS (boarding) 6:55, Lapenskie TB (roughing), C. Anderson WIS (slashing) 10:48, Wolframe TB (slashing, unsportsmanlike conduct),Rakas WIS (boarding, unsportsmanlike conduct) 18:55.
Second period
Scoring: 2. Wisconsin, Dietrich (Blaisdell) 1:58. Penalties: Pirus, TB (roughing) 7:48, Mi. Fox TB (high sticking) 11:33, Hurley WIS (hooking) 16:05, Howarth TB (roughing), Hurley WIS (cross checking) 19:48.
Third period
Scoring: Thunder Bay, Dubinsky (Wolframe, Alexander) 5:07 pp. 4. Thunder Bay, Rempel (Dubinsky, Wolframe) 7:32. 5. Wisconsin, Shockley (Housley) 8:58. 6. Wisconsin, Drill (Calabrese) 16:02. 7. Wisconsin, C. Anderson (unassisted) 19:12 en. Penalties: Milliron WIS (high sticking) 3:22..
GAME DATA – SOG – Wisconsin 8-9-5-22-, Thunder Bay 12-8-7-27; Power plays (goals-chances): Wisconsin (1-3), Thunder Bay (0-2); Goaltenders – Wisconsin: Tanner Milliron, Thunder Bay: Marc Nother; A: 560.
