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Sons, Trappers go down to the wire in weekend play

Three AAA Major Bantam weekend games in Levack, three encounters decided in the final period of play. Such is life in the Major Bantam division of the Northern Ontario AAA Hockey League (NOHL).
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The St. Charles Cardinals and Lockerby Vikings will meet in the NOSSA boys hockey gold medal game this evening. File photo.
Three AAA Major Bantam weekend games in Levack, three encounters decided in the final period of play.

Such is life in the Major Bantam division of the Northern Ontario AAA Hockey League (NOHL).

There was very little to choose between the visiting North Bay Trappers (15-7-2) and the Nickel City Sons (12-14-3), battling it out for the past few days at the northernmost arena in the region.

The Sons would draw first blood as Tommy Vlahos snapped a 2-2 tie at 8:11 of the third in Game 1, with Damien Giroux adding a little insurance, on the power play, three minutes later, lifting Nickel City to a 4-2 win.

Nicholas Raymond and Giroux traded goals in the opening frame, with Christian Gaudreau (Nickel City) and Maxime Grondin (North Bay) doing likewise in period two.

Some six hours later, the teams found themselves in a very similar situation, this time deadlocked in a scoreless tie after two periods of play. Gaudreau would break the ice for the homeside, blocking a shot at his own blue-line and making no mistake in going to his backhand on the breakaway attempt.

But after being held off the scoresheet completely for nearly 40 minutes by goaltender Matty Mayhew and company, the Trappers rallied, bulging the twine three times in less than 10 minutes to even the weekend series with a 3-1 win.

Warren Huard, Raymond and Grondin scored one goal apiece for the winners, with Zach Roy recording the win between the pipes. With the trend clearly established, it was little surprise that the rubber match would come down to the final seven minutes to decide a winner.

Nickel City again struck first, with Ryan Fournier getting his team on the board, with the man advantage, at 7:07 of the second period. North Bay countered before the end of the middle stanza courtesy of Nicholas Davis, as the Trappers' forward netted his 15th goal of the year.

Huard and Grondin were front and centre, yet again, for the visitors, with the pair finding the back of the net six minutes apart, in the third, as Grondin buried his tally into a vacated cage.

The Sons and Trappers were the only Major Bantam teams in the NOHL partaking in league play, with the Sudbury AAA Wolves and Timmins AAA Majors taking part in the Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs tournament over the weekend.

In fact, Sudbury and Timmins would meet up in quarter-final play, with the Wolves prevailing before dropping a tough 3-2 decision to the Toronto Jr. Canadians in the semifinals.

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