RECAP: Frontenacs give a full team effort in a 4-3 Win in North Bay
The Kingston Frontenacs rolled into North Bay to do battle against the Battalion on Thursday night. It’s the Frontenacs’ first full weekend away from Leon’s Centre since mid-October; playing North Bay first before heading to the Soo on Friday night, followed by a trip to Sudbury for a Sunday matinee. It’s an important road trip for Kingston as the games begin to get harder and the points in the standings become more valuable as we get further into the season.
Kingston came out of the gates with a lot of energy as they looked to avenge a 8-6 defeat on home ice at the hands of the Battalion last Friday night. Although outplaying North Bay early, a seeing eye shot from the point by Paul Christopolous (1) got the Battalion on the board first. The Frontenacs were quick to respond though as Jakub Chromiak would score his first of the season and his first in the black and gold to even the game up at one a side just over two minutes after North Bay opened the scoring. Chromiak jumped up from the blue line and found an open lane in the slot and ripped a shot into the top left of the net for his first of the campaign.
With the second period underway the Battalion would get on the board first with North Bay captain Liam Arnsby finding the back of the net; however the goal was waved off after a lengthy review determined that Justin Ertel entered the zone offside. With the go ahead goal coming off the board, the Frontenacs flipped the script and took a 2-1 lead for themselves as Quinton Burns faked a shot and slid the puck over to Linus Hemstrom who had a wide open cage and he would score his 11th of the season. Ty Nelson (12) was quick to respond as he would launch a slapshot from the point to tie the game up at two a piece just minutes later on a Batallion powerplay.
With seven minutes left in the middle period, Tommy Budnick found Gabriel Frasca on the other side of the offensive zone and he would unleash a cannon from the top of the circle to get his second of the season and give his Kingston Frontenacs the 3-2 lead; but Frasca wasn’t done there. With just under two minutes to go in the period, Frasca (3) would again find the back of the net to double the lead and get his second of the night to give his side the 4-2 lead going into the final 20 minutes of action.
The Frontenacs had just one job to do as they headed into the final 20 minutes of action; and that was to slam the door shut on the Battalion. North Bay typically has a high powered offense, so the black and gold knew that they would have their hands full with the Battalion down a pair of goals. Kingston was successful in keeping North Bay to the outside of the ice and clearing lanes in front of Mason Vaccari in the first half of the final frame; but North Bay broke through with a goal from Jacob Therrien (11) to make it a 4-3 game. Led by a strong performance from Vaccari, the Frontenacs wouldn’t allow anything else and shut it down to hold on for a 4-3 win in a full team effort to kick off their northern road trip.
A big night from Linus Hemstrom who had a goal and three assists for four points as he factored in on every Frontenacs goal on the evening, as well as Gabriel Frasca who had two goals; bringing him to three on the season in as many games. Kingston will need these two to continue to come up big as Paul Ludwinski heads to Team Canada Selection Camp in the coming days.
Upcoming Games:
Fri, Dec 8th, 2023 | Kingston at Soo | 7:07 pm | GFL Memorial Gardens
Sun, Dec 10th, 2023 | Kingston at Sudbury | 2:05 pm | Sudbury Community Arena
Thurs, Dec 14th, 2023 | Kingston at Peterborough | 7:05 pm | Peterborough Memorial Centre
Fri, Dec 15th, 2023 | Kingston vs. Niagara | 7:00 pm | Leon’s Centre | Hockey is for the Dogs
Sun, Dec 17th, 2023 | Kingston vs. Brantford | 7:00 pm | Leon’s Centre | Holiday Game
