Fort William Canadiens U18 'AA'

After two poor outings, the Fort William Canadiens returned to form and defeated the Fort William Hurricanes 4-2.  The Canadiens have now defeated the Hurricanes twice and tied them once.  The Canadiens are now 7-9-3 while the Hurricanes drop to 9-6-2. 

The Canadiens did not get out to a good start.  Rylan Yawney took a puck the length of the ice shorthanded and scored the opening goal for the Hurricanes.  Brandon Hyatt responded for the Canadiens when he deflected a Jordan Baraniuk point shot.  It was Hyatt's first of the season.

The Canadiens scored the only goal of the second period, with Justin Backor scoring his fifth of the year.  The lone assist was credited to Baraniuk.

Terry Zaroski finished a nice three way passing play to make the score 3-1.  It was Zaroski's 14th of the season.  Chris Kovac stretched the lead to 4-1, converting an odd-man rush for his 12th goal of the season.  Michael Maxwell scored a late powerplay marker for the Hurricanes to close out the scoring.

Cody Junttola was solid in net and earned the victory.  Jeff Stokes took the loss.

The Canadiens were 0-7 on the powerplay while the Hurricanes were 1-6.

Notes:  Jesse Friday was ejected with just over 11 minutes remaining in the game for a checking from behind infraction.  He does not have to sit out any further action; The Thunder Bay Minor tournament schedule has been released (available on the schedule page) and the Canadiens open the tournament against the Hurricanes; Backor finished the game with three points while Baraniuk, Kovac and Hyatt all had two points; Jordan Buckley returned to the line-up following his two-game suspension; Backor finished the game +3; Zaroski got his second game winning goal of the season; The Canadiens are now 4-0-3 when leading after the second period but just 1-8-0 when trailing after the second.

The Canadiens did not start the 2005 portion of the season as hoped, losing 8-5 to the Neebing Hawks juvenile hockey team.  The Canadiens showed just little spurts of effort during the game and the 13 days off without a game was evident.

The Canadiens, who entered the game with the best team goals against average of Midget 'AA' teams at 3.19 (only team which has a better average is the Bantam Kings at 2.50), did not win the battles in their own zone and the score showed this.

After starting the game with just four defenseman due to the absence of Jordan Buckley (suspension) and Brad McLean (work), the Canadiens lost Jordan Baraniuk six minutes into the game, forcing Jesse Friday to return to the defenseman position. 

The line of Mark Dysievick, Willy Coderre, and Justin Molkoski scored six goals and combined for 13 points.  Coderre had four goals while Dysievick had two goals and four assists.

Chris Kovac registered a three goal performance for the Canadiens, giving him five goals in the last three games.  Sean Spenrath added a goal and two assists.

Tyler Fortin earned the win while Cody Junttola was saddled with the loss.

The Canadiens did not have a powerplay during the game while Neebing was 1-2 on the man advantage.

Notes:  The Canadiens are the lowest scoring team in the league at 2.88 goals per game.  West End (4.25) and Neebing (4.21) are the highest scoring teams in the league;  The worst team defense in the league statistically is the Volunteer Pool Bearcats at 4.53 goals against per game.  Norwest and Neebing are second at 4.07; The least penalized team in the league is the Kings at 13.8 minutes per game.  The Canadiens are fifth (of eight) at 21.2.  Current River is the most penalized team at 28.4 minutes per game; The Thunder Bay Minor Tournament at the end of January has only been able to attract one team from outside Thunder Bay (the Dryden Renegades) and therefore will be a six team round-robin.  The Canadiens are guaranteed five games for the tournament, with play expected to begin on the evening of January 27th.