KENORA, Ont. – The Thunder Bay major midget Kings stormed back from a one-goal second period deficit by supplying five unanswered goals to defeat the Kenora Thistles 5-1 Friday night in Game 1 of the Hockey Northwestern Ontario AAA midget district championship at the Kenora Recreation Centre.
Kenora picked up the lone tally of the first period when Matthew Pitchenese connected on the power play at 11:16.
Thunder Bay drew level midway through the contest when Matthew Caruso fed Cody Bruchkowski for the equalizer.
The Kings then picked up the eventual game-winner in the final minute of the second on an Elijah Loon-Stewardson effort.
Building on the momentum of that late tally, Thunder Bay struck three times in the third to secure the victory.
Robert Tyska, Jacob Brown and one more from Bruchkowski were the Kings’ marksmen in the session.
Ryan Fanti made 23 saves to record the win for Thunder Bay with Tyler Szturm seeing 42 shots fired his way in defeat for the Thistles.
Game 2 of the best-of-three goes Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET back in Kenora.
