TROY, Mich. – Round 3 action in the North American Prospects Hockey League began Friday in Troy, Mich., for the Thunder Bay Kings with the minor midget side-splitting a pair of contests, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Rocky Mountain Rough Riders before prevailing 4-1 over the California Titans while the major midgets dropped their lone match-up of the day, falling 3-2 to the Connecticut Elite..
In the setback vs. Rocky Mountain, Thunder Bay fell behind 3-0 into the middle stanza before Michael Stubbs set-up Travis Hensrud with 37 seconds left in the period.
It stayed that way until the final minute of regulation when Stubbs was awarded a penalty shot and made no mistake to pull the Kings to within one.
However, the Rough Riders held on from there to secure the decision.
Stephan Bourgeois faced 37 shots in defeat for the Kings.
In the match-up with California, the Titans struck first to take a 1-0 lead after one only to see Thunder Bay tie it on a Stubbs’ man-advantage marker at 5:57 before Mackenzie Sedgwick put the Kings in front a couple shifts later with the eventual game-winner.
They would then tack on two more in the third to secure the victory with Tarcisius Tibishkogijig and Stubbs both finding the back of the net.
Thunder Bay outshot California 41-17 with Connor Lemieux picking up the win.
Saturday features a 2 p.m. contest vs. Kelowna’s Pursuit of Excellence for the under-16 squad.
Meanwhile, in the under-18 Kings loss to the Elite, Zach Fortin gave the majors the lead after one, but Connecticut drew level in the final moments of the second period.
Jacob Anttonen put Thunder Bay back in front 9:54 into the third only to see the Elite strike twice in a 31-second span to draw level them pick-up the decider to complete a come from behind win.
Jordan Smith suffered the loss for the Kings seeing 27 shots fired his way while his side put 26 attempts on the Connecticut goal.
They return to the ice twice Saturday as they meet the Pursuit of Excellence U-18s at 9:15 a.m. before concluding the day vs. Meier AAA of Michigan at 5:15 p.m.
