BLAINE, Minn. – It was a tough go overall for the Thunder Bay Kings in Minnesota Sunday as they went a combined 1-5 overall.
Sunday saw the Thunder Bay minor midget Kings let a two-goal lead slip away as they fell 3-2 to the Everett Silvertips of Washington State before finishing up with a 6-3 setback against the Washington Capitals in North American Prospects Hockey League play in Blaine, Minn.
Against Everett, Michael Stubbs and Travis Hensrud connected 27 seconds apart in the first period only to see the Silvertips rally with four unanswered tallies and secure the come from behind victory.
Stephan Bourgeois suffered the setback in goal for the Kings seeing 28 attempts fired his way in the loss.
Moving on to meet Washington, it was scoreless after the opening session before the Capitals connected twice in rapid succession early in the second to put them up by a pair.
Thunder Bay did get one back later in the frame when Nikolas Campbell scored during a Kings’ power play at 9:44.
However, Washington went back up by two once more only to see Thunder Bay bury a pair in the latter stages of the stanza getting goals from Mackenzie Sedgwick and Stubbs to level the proceedings at 3-3 after two.
The back-and-forth affair saw the Capitals return to the lead in the third though as they connected three times to secure the victory.
Eric Vanska suffered the loss in goal for the Kings.
The Dallas Blackhawks Elite will provide the opposition for the minor midgets Monday at 1 p.m.
NAPHL under-18 play Sunday saw Thunder Bay drop a 4-2 decision to CarShield AAA of St. Louis.
Jonathon Kilby and Christian Veneruzzo were the Kings’ marksmen before the St. Louis side scored the game’s final three markers to pull out the win.
Jordan Smith faced 32 shots in defeat in net for Thunder Bay.
The major midgets will conclude Round 4 in the NAPHL Monday when they meet the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Sabres at 11:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, in semifinal play at the NAHL Future Prospects tournament in Blaine, the bantam Kings held a big edge in shots, but could not solve the opposing netminder as they fell 3-0 to Omaha AAA Sunday.
Thunder Bay outshot Omaha 11-5 in the first period but found them themselves down 2-0 on an even-strength effort and a man advantage marker.
After a scoreless middle stanza, Omaha iced it in the late going with another power play goal that was scored into an empty net.
Topher Chirico was stellar stopping all 30 attempts he faced to post the shutout while Brayden McKever suffered the loss.
You also had the peewee Kings competing in the 41st annual Spirit of Duluth tourney where they fell 3-1 to the Duluth East Greyhounds in the consolation final.
They did advance to that contest by edging the Lakeville Panthers 4-3 earlier in the day.
In the triumph vs. Lakeville, Owen Voortman put Thunder Bay in front early in the contest before teammate E.J. Paddington put them up by two after that.
Lakeville got a second-period hat trick from Tanner Ludtke while Jonathan Beaucage connected for the Kings to knot the contest at 3-3.
However, Paddington picked up the game-winner in the third to send Thunder Bay up against Duluth East.
In that match-up with the Greyhounds, they fell behind 2-0 before Kaden Goodwin struck shorthanded to put the Kings on the board late in the second period.
Duluth, however, got that back on that same power play before the session was complete in what turned out to be the game’s final marker.
