THUNDER BAY – The Nickel City Sons rode the strength of four power play goals to help them rally for a 7-4 win over the Thunder Bay Kings Thursday in Day 2 play at the All-Ontario under-13 AAA championship, presented by BioSteel, at the Fort William Gardens.
An early extra-man effort helped Nickel City strike first when Ty Belanger swatted one in from close range off a Greyson Hnatiuk attempt from up top.
The Kings came back to tie it at 5:21 thanks to Felix Sapay converting from the slot.
Thunder Bay then went in front, deep into a two-man advantage, when Brady Nash jammed one under Sons starter Ty Imbeau.
Gavin Godick then made it 3-1 late in the first and he converted from the slot.
After an Imbeau stop on a two-on-one, Owen Angus corralled the puck for Nickel City and made an impressive rush up ice and proceeded to wire one into the top right hand corner on Kings’ netminder Kainaan Macgillivray.
Adding another at 4:18, the Sons drew level when Preston Hebert sent a crisp cross-crease feed over to Hnatiuk, who batted in the equalizer from the right of the crease.
Not done there, the NOHA reps tacked on another, while up a skater, as Dacey Dupuis put one under the pad of Macgillivray.
Another extra-man effort helped Nickel City take a 5-3 lead to the second intermission when Angus sent a perfect feed across to Cooper Niquet, who quickly hammered a one-timer into the back of the net.
Heading to the third, the Sons put the game away with their fourth power play goal of the afternoon, which came off the stick of Niquet.
A seventh effort was then notched after Ezio Cusinato finished off a Dupuis feed.
The Kings got one back when Jace Voortman forced a turnover and went in and connected from the top of the right circle with 8:38 to play to round out the scoring.
Picking up player of the game honours were Belanger and Nash.
With the result, Nickel City moves to 1-1-1 overall while Thunder Bay fell to 1-2-0.
The Sons are back at Friday at 2 p.m. when they take on the Whitby Wildcats, while Kings next contest goes tomorrow morning versus the Ottawa Valley Titans.
Photo credit: James Mirabelli
