Lucas Punkari
It was a game that easily could have been classified as a tribute to the free-wheeling Edmonton Oilers of the late 1980s, and one that saw as many twists and turns as an episode of “Coronation Street.”
But when the final buzzer sounded at the ’52 Canadians Arena here Sunday afternoon, it was the Current River Comets who breathed the biggest sigh of relief.
The Thunder Bay-based squad came away with a 10-9 victory over the Atikokan Voyageurs in the final of the PeeWee ‘A’ tournament host by the Fort Frances Minor Hockey Association.
“I’m pretty sure a lot of years were taken off of my life with that one,” Comets’ head coach Dave Huston laughed after the game.
“It was a pretty stressful game with that many goals being scored, but the coaches and the kids are really happy that we able to win it,” he added.
In the other dressing room, even though his team suffered the heart-breaking loss, Voyageurs’ bench boss Mike Krassey felt his players had nothing to be ashamed of.
“I’m very happy with how the kids played,” he enthused.
“For our very first tournament of the year, and with the fact that these kids are still trying to get used to playing with each other, I thought things went great.
“And I think it’s only going to get better from here,” Krassey added.
Early on, it looked like the Voyageurs would run away with the tourney title as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first period, leaving Huston with the task of trying to rally his troops.
“When we got down early like that, I knew that I just to try and get everyone to regroup,” he said.
“I told the kids to try and stick to our original game plan. And after that, we started to turn the tide, so to speak, and we started to pick away at the lead.”
After cutting the deficit to a pair of goals by the end of the opening frame, the Comets exploded for four markers in the second to grab a 6-4 lead, which put Krassey in a situation where he had to motivate his players.
“I had called a time-out when we fell behind by two goals, and I asked the guys if ‘we were just going to go home and shake hands’ as it looked like we had given up,” he recalled.
“As soon as I said that, they all looked at me like I had my head cut off and they all replied, ‘No, we’re not going to give up,’ and that’s when we got back going again.”
From that point on, the teams traded goals for the rest of the game. And it only was because of a few clutch saves by Comets’ goalie Taylor Toskovich that kept the game from going into overtime.
Offensively, Lucas Evans was on fire for the Comets, scoring six goals in the final. Meanwhile, teammate Devon Roy added a hat trick, which included the game-winning marker.
Kyler Gannon led the Voyageurs with a hat trick of his own, and also set up Parker Sampson’s goal with 51 seconds to go that cut the deficit to one.
While a local team was unable to reach the final of their home tournament, one did come away with some hardware.
The Fort Frances Fireman beat the Nor-West Stars (Thunder Bay} to capture the ‘B’-side final.
The Emo Hawks, meanwhile, took home the ‘C’-side trophy by knocking off Kenora Bishop’s.
