Staff
The Fort Frances Canadians unfortunately felt the heat Sunday afternoon at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Jett Mintenko scored twice to pace the North End Flames (Thunder Bay) to a narrow 3-2 win over the Canadians in the gold-medal final of the Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association’s annual Bantam ‘AA’ tournament.
Mintenko opened the scoring 5:22 into the first period when he fired a laser off the crossbar and in that eluded Canadians’ goalie Ethan Rose.
Josh Ward drew the Canadians even less than a minute into the second when he sprung loose on a breakaway and made a few dekes before tucking a shot past Flames’ goalie Sam Taylor.
The Flames took the lead once more a few minutes later when Mintenko rifled home his second of the game with a shot top-shelf that Rose had no chance on.
A head contact penalty later in the frame by Tayler Chown proved to be costly for the Canadians as Alex Smith tipped home a point shot on the ensuing man-advantage to put Flames up 3-1.
Emerson Evans made things interesting when he buried a rebound with the Canadians on a man-advantage with 2:02 left in the third to trim it to 3-2.
The Canadians then pulled Rose in favour of an extra-attacker in an attempt to tie it but to no avail.
Fort Frances had opened tourney play with a 7-4 victory over International Falls on Friday afternoon.
Brandon Croswell scored twice to pace the offence in that one.
Chown, Noah McPherson, Evan Kabel, Kade Evan Bruyere, and Dylan Tessier added singles.
Parker Sivonen scored twice for the Falls, with Colin Kostiuk and Max Dremmel also tallying.
The final game of the day Friday wasn’t as kind to the Canadians, however, as they lost 6-3 to the South End Rangers (Thunder Bay).
Tessier, Koda Radigan, and McPherson supplied the goals in a losing cause.
But the squad bounced back in a big way Saturday morning with a 5-3 win over the St. James Canadians (Winnipeg).
Chown tallied twice in that one while Evans, McPherson, and Pierce Gouin also lit the lamp.
The third-place Canadians then exacted some revenge as they eked out a 5-4 shootout win over the second-place Rangers in the semi-finals Saturday afternoon to book their ticket to Sunday’s final.
McPherson tallied twice while Ward and Chown also bulged the twine in regulation.
Darnell Kempf notched the only goal of the shootout to give the Canadians the win.
The Rangers won the bronze medal earlier Sunday with a 8-3 drubbing of International Falls.
Up next, the FFMHA is scheduled to host its annual Midget ‘A’ tournament this Friday through Sunday.
