Chris St-Pierre
For The Community Press
The Kapuskasing Eastview Chev Flyers kept the win streak alive, pushing it to five straight victories beating Steve Polyblank’s New Liskeard Cubs 4-3 in overtime on home ice Friday night, narrowing the race to the summit of the Great North Midget League.
The Flyers had a hot start in the first with Samuel Lambert opening it up with help from Samuel Vachon in the first few minutes, scoring his eighth goal of the season. Brendan Aubertin followed on the power play a few minutes later. Linemates Vachon and Kobe Barrette earned assists.
The second period was a lot rougher than expected, especially in the faceoff circle. At one point, the Flyers got caught up in New Liskeard’s game.
“All of sudden (our) guys were over-handling the puck and to their credit, (New Liskeard) were a little more aggressive, they got on top of pucks, had good sticks, were physical with us… we got into a game where we started chirping with them after the whistle and we’re not that type of team,” admitted Flyers head coach Glen Denney.
The Cubs retaliated, tying it up with a couple of goals from Jackson Buffam and a lucky bounce from Adam Rowell.
A lone Flyers goal came in halfway through the second, when Blane Boissoneault slipped the puck between Jake McGuire’s pads with help from Dawson Linklater.
After two chapters, the Flyers coaching staff had to rally the troops.
“We got into the room afterwards and said if you guys still get involved in the stuff that happened after the whistle, we’re going to get ourselves into trouble,” explained Glen Denney.
“We were poor on faceoffs in the first 40 minutes. We ended up throwing [Dawson] Linklater in there and Linklater went 11 for 11 and won everything,” he added.
The Flyers held off the opponent for the final 20 minutes, forcing them into overtime for only the second time this year.
Kapuskasing ended up winning it all thanks to a laser shot coming off Samuel Vachon’s stick following a great setup from Brendan Aubertin and Ryan Maynard.
“We wanted to play defensively and as a team. It was important to stay on our man in the defensive zone,” said Vachon on the final minutes of the game. When he scored the game-winning-goal, it all happened quickly.
“It went by so fast. I guess there was a bit of luck in that shot.”
The Flyers’ head coach was very satisfied with his team’s performance.
“I thought in overtime, we controlled play for the most part. We have some pretty skilled guys and if all of a sudden we sit there and open up the ice to create three on threes (in overtime), I think we’re going to be a pretty good club against most teams.”
After only five games back, Flyers’ returnee Samuel Vachon has quickly found his stride, notching a goal and two assists Friday. Surprisingly, he found immediate chemistry with his new, and old, linemates, Kobe Barette and Brendan Aubertin.
Friday night alone, the three players racked up a total of two goals and four assists. Glen Denney had a lot of praise for the Besties line.
“I thought in the first period they were phenomenal.
“They are not standing still. If all of a sudden you get the puck down in the corner and you don’t move, it’s pretty easy to shut it down. I think they did a great job of moving their feet, advancing the puck, using each other and changing the point of attack.”
Netminder Joshua Dubeault also had a standard night, earning his 6th regular season win.
The Flyers (19W-2L-21GP) now stand tied for first in the GNML alongside the North Bay Major Midget Trappers (19W-0L-19GP) with 38 points.
