Chris St-Pierre
For The Community Press
The Kapuskasing Flyers got tossed around last weekend against the Sudbury Minor Midget Wolves and the league leading North Bay Major Midget Trappers, ending a 4-game winning streak.
Last Saturday, Glen Denney’s squad went head to head with one of the top-10 minor midget teams in Ontario in a penultimate matchup. Despite hoping for a tight win similar to October 22nd’s game, Sudbury got comfortable late in the night.
All started well in the first as Samuel Vachon wheeled it up the ice all alone to bury the puck past Patrick Boivin to open up the score. The Wolves waited until the final minutes of the following period to even things up on the powerplay. Defenceman Owen Jalbert would make his presence for the first and definitely not the last time of the night.
The final period was filled to the brim with action, tension and drama as Sudbury had found the key to beat Josh Dubeault. Zacharie Giroux would score twice in a row, at 5v5 and on the powerplay, giving his team the lead for the first time that night.
A minute after they jumped ahead, Wolves’ Devon Savignac landed a thunderous hit in the neutral zone on Flyers defenceman Kyle Trottier, launching him back first into the boards. He was laid out on the ice for a few minutes before making it back to the dressing room with help from trainer Dave Lozier. Sudbury’s #98 would be sent to the box for a mere 2 minutes for head contact.
Kapuskasing made them pay, as Vachon would score his second of the game on the ensuing powerplay with help from Dawson Linklater and Ryan Maynard. Patrick Gagnon would score the equalizer two minutes later, assisted omce again by Linklater and Maynard. That would be the final Flyers goal. Throughout the rest of the game, players would trade shots after the whistle, which forced the aforementioned Jalbert and Flyers captain Alex Lapointe to the box. Sudbury would then score three unanswered goals to end Kapuskasing’s 4-game win streak with a 6-3 final score.
According to assistant-coach Michel Lachance-Grzela, d-man Kyle Trottier had played his best game of the year and his unfortunate injury would force the Flyers to face North Bay the following afternoon with a man down.
Sunday’s contest got off to a hot start for Kapuskasing. The Flyers earned a powerplay in the opening minutes, however North Bay would slowly up the pressure in all areas of the ice. Noah Lagrandeur would score twice and Jack Stockfish beat Carson Boutin above the shoulders to give the Trappers a 3-0 lead after twenty minutes.
Kapukasing’s first reply would come in the last minutes of the second period after North Bay took a 5-0 lead. Alex Blais would slip into traffic, redirecting a shot from Ryan Maynard on the powerplay. Despite their best efforts, a minor error would become a scoring opportunity. Many of these allowed the opposing team to increase their dominance over the Flyers after two chapters.
The score stood 7-1 at the start of round three, the Major Midget Trappers would set up two beautiful plays between the dots. Jesse Kirkby and Justin Dauphinais would score goals 8 and 9 before Kapuskasing’s final push. Once again, special teams would become one of the best weapons for the Flyers. Alexis Gendron score the 2nd and final goal for his team on the powerplay off a rebound from Cooper Roussy. Carson Boutin would once again fall to the best team in the north, having little to no chance of reaching the puck on a handful of goals.
Goalies Carson Boutin and Josh Dubeault each registered a loss. Ryan Maynard would lead all player in points across both games with 3 assists. Rookie defenceman Justin Carrière also impressed defensively, recovering pucks, fighting for possession in the corners and playing an overall grittier style.
The Kapuskasing Flyers now head down to Peterborough for the Midget Tournament of Champions this weekend with a two-game losing streak. Hopefully, they can get the monkey off their backs and return to northern Ontario with a fresh head..
