BLAINE, Minn. – It was a good day for the Thunder Bay Kings in both North American Prospects Hockey League and NAPHL Future Prospects play Saturday in Blaine, Minn., as they went 3-1 overall.
The Thunder Bay minor midgets won 3-2 over Minnesota Elite Central before edging the Colorado Springs Tigers 2-1 in another tightly contested matchup.
As for the major midgets, their lone game of the day saw them fall 6-4 to Minnesota Elite Northeast while the bantam Kings clobbered the West Coast Renegades of Utah 9-1.
In the minor midget opener vs. Elite Central, they fell behind early only to see Christian Veneruzzo tie it with a minute and half left in the first period.
Keighna Gerrie then put Thunder Bay up 2-1 with the lone goal of the middle stanza.
Action in the final frame saw Minnesota knot the affair at 2-2 10 minutes into the session only to see Ethan Carlson-Jourdain bury the game-winner with 2:19 remaining to give the Kings the win.
Christian Cicigoi made 29 stops to record the victory in net.
Against Colorado Springs, Cooper Witherspoon buried a Jonathon Kilby feed to put Thunder Bay in front 7:13 in.
Following a scoreless second stanza, the Tigers tied it with 2:43 left in regulation only to see Veneruzzo strike 34 seconds later to provide the difference maker in the triumph.
Jordan Smith earned the decision in goal.
As for the major midgets, they did get off to a good start as they scored in the first minute into the contest with Minnesota Elite Northeast only to see their opponents score twice on consecutive shifts to grab a 2-1 lead after one.
Action in the middle session saw the Kings notch a pair of markers to go up 3-2 heading into the third on efforts supplied by Fletcher Anderson and Quintin Loon-Stewardson.
It was all Minnesota in the final frame however as they outscored Thunder Bay 4-1 in the session to secure the come from behind victory.
Elite Northeast supplied the first two tallies to put them up 4-3 before Logan Michalcin levelled the proceedings at 8:47 only to see Minnesota tack on two more to win it.
Both Ryan Fanti and Seth McKay saw action in net for the Kings in defeat.
Wrapping up the day were the bantam Kings who got two goals apiece from Michael Stubbs, Travis Hensrud and Dawson Lampi in the one-sided decision while Nikolas Campbell scored once and dished out three assists.
Owen Perala and Alex Atwill also tallied for Thunder Bay in the romp with Dylan Bertand supplying three helpers along the way.
Earning the victory in net for Thunder Bay was Connor Lemieux.
Sunday sees the minor midgets taking on the California Titans at 3 p.m. while the majors have a pair of contests on their slate starting off with an 11 a.m. match-up vs. the New Jersey Titans before wrapping up the day against Pursuit of Excellence of Kelowna, B.C. at 8:30 p.m.
The bantams will meet Omaha AAA of Nebraska in their only game Sunday, which goes at 9 a.m.
