TROY, MIch. – The Thunder Bay minor and major midget Kings both dropped their opening games Thursday in Round 5 play in the North American Prospects Hockey League taking place in Troy, Mich.
The under-16 side were edged 3-1 by the Pursuit of Excellence from Kelowna, B.C. while the U-18 squad was slammed 9-1 by the St. Louis Selects.
Against POE, the Kings fell behind 2-0 after one period of play and the score stayed that way through a scoreless middle session.
In the third, Thunder Bay pulled to with one with 6:15 remaining as Robert Tyska and Quintin Loon-Stewardson combined to set-up Fletcher Anderson for his fifth NAPHL goal.
The Kings pressed for the equalizer, outshooting their opponents 12-3 in the final period, but would allow an empty netter with 31 seconds to go to complete the scoring.
The minors held the edge in shots of goal by a 24-13 count overall in the setback with Seth McKay suffering the loss.
The U-16 Kings are back at it Friday when they meet the San Diego Jr. Gulls at 10 a.m.
As for the Kings under-18 game, Thunder Bay did get off to a good start against St. Louis notching the game’s opening tally 4:18 into the contest courtesy of Baldino Aiello.
It was all Selects from there however as they scored twice before the first was complete to take the lead.
St. Louis then blew it open in the middle stanza striking six times to take control.
They added one more in the third to cap off the romp.
Ryan Fanti started for the Kings and suffered the defeat allowing six against on 17 shots while Tyler Szturm stopped eight of 11 in 27 minutes of relief.
The major midgets play twice Friday starting with an 8 a.m. encounter vs. the Arizona Bobcats before wrapping up the day against HC Dallas at 2:15 p.m.
