TROY, Mich. – The Thunder Bay major and minor midget Kings wrapped up regular season play in the North American Prospects Hockey League Sunday in Troy, Mich., with a pair of losses.
Thunder Bay’s major midgets dropped a third consecutive 3-2 decision, falling to the Nashville Jr. Predators while the Kings’ minor midget under-16 squad fell by an identical 3-2 score to the Florida Alliance.
The Kings outshot the Predators 30-19 in the under-18 contest but gave up the game-winner with just under four minutes remaining in regulation.
Nicholas DeGrazia at even strength and Anthony Biniaris, via the power play, scored for Thunder Bay while Eric Vanska suffered the defeat in net.
In the under-16 match-up vs. Florida, the Kings also held the edge in shots, by a 27-18 count.
Florida took a 1-0 lead after one with a power-play goal while Alex Atwill tied it with the man advantage in the second stanza.
The Alliance came back to regain the lead in the third to go up 2-1 at 6:39.
Down a man on a five-minute major Noah Broughton struck shorthanded a couple minutes later to knot the affair at 2-2, but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty call after the play put the Kings down two men.
They managed to get back to even strength despite Florida ringing one off the post, but the lack of discipline would eventually cost the Kings as Clint Evens collected the game-winner on a late power play with 95 seconds to go on a splendid individual effort.
Gage Stewart was between the pipes in the defeat.
With the three straight setbacks, the major midgets finished in third spot in the NAPHL’s U-18 Elite Division with a 12-7-0-1 record.
The minors meanwhile ended up in first place among the six sides in the U-16 Elite rankings, also finishing with a 12-7-0-1 mark.
Both clubs will return to Michigan in mid-February for the NAPHL’s Dixon Cup championship tournament.
