OLIVER PAIPOONGE – The one thing the Kam River Fighting Walleye can’t afford to do against the Red Lake Miners is take too many penalties.
Unfortunately for them, they ignored that part of their game plan on Tuesday night.
The visiting Miners scored three times on four power-play opportunities, propelling the second-place Superior International Junior Hockey League team to a 3-2 win in the opener of their best-of-seven Bill Salonen Cup final at a nearly sold-out Norwest Arena.
“Last series our power play struggled a lot,” said forward Jordan Baranesky, whose goal at 9:13 of the second period erased a 1-0 Kam River advantage, silencing the 750 at hand after Dayton Clarke had given the Fighting Walleye a 1-0 lead with 4:09 to play in the opening period.
“We had to work on that, but we’ve just got to move the puck quick and get it by them into the dirty areas and get goals. Other than that, it was just effort. We wanted it. A bunch of guys laid their bodies on the line and there were some big shots toward the end there.”
Eight minutes after Baranesky potted his seventh of the post-season, Brady Harroun picked the perfect time to net his first, ripping a shot from the left faceoff dot past Austin Madge in the Kam River net, the Miners taking not only their first lead of the night, but taking it for good.
Again, the goal came on the power play, with Kam River’s Kersey Reich in the box serving two for tripping.
It’s a big turnaround on special teams, said Red Lake coach Geoff Walker, whose team is seeking its first SIJHL championship in three finals appearances.
“We went to work on those few days that we did have and kind of got back to our basics on what we were used to, which made us have the best power play in the league all year,” Walker said.
“Obviously it paid of tonight, so we’ll try to build off that.”
Walker said it’s hard to understate just how important it was to grab Game 1, especially in the Fighting Walleye’s barn.
“But we lost Game 1 last series at home, so we know it can be done. We’ve just got to get some rest and come back and try to get two tomorrow,” Walker said.
Ryan Hunter, the lone SIJHL player to average more than two points a game during the regular season, provided an insurance marker early in the third, a goal that would prove valuable to the Red Lake cause, as three minutes later Clarke’s one-timer from the slot found its way past Miners goalie Kiev Kineshanko and narrowed the Miners lead to one, with a long 13:35 left on the regulation clock.
In the end, the Fighting Walleye did themselves in, said coach Matt Valley.
“They scored of three of their four chances on the power play. That’s a pretty simple adjustment for us. We tried to make a move between periods and they just kept hitting those seams that we were trying not to leave open,” Valley said.
“Obviously we had some key guys out of the lineup, but that’s no excuse. We’ve got lot of good penalty killers in the lineup that just didn’t do their job, I don’t think.”
That said, he’s confident the team will bounce back in Game 2 on Friday night.
“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you lose. You just have to reflect, you have to feel it and when you walk out the door, you’ve got to move on. You’ve got to come back with something more tomorrow,” Valley said, adding fans can expect some different names in the lineup in Game 2.
FIRST PERIOD
Scoring: 1. Kam River, Clarke 3 (Oviedo, Reich) 15:51. Penalties: Rossetti RLM (high sticking) 19:36.
SECOND PERIOD
Scoring: 2. Red Lake, Baranesky 7 (Hunter, Howe) 9:13 pp. 3. Red Lake, Haroun 1 (Dickie, Rossetti) 17:01. Penalties: McNeil KRW (roughing) 8:16, Reich KRW (tripping) 15:23, McCollum KRW (high sticking) 17:41, Baranesky KRW (slashing), Woodcroft KRW (cross checking) 19:49.
THIRD PERIOD
Scoring. 4. Red Lake, Hunter 3 (Baranesky, Bolin) 3:16 p.p. 5. Kam River, Clarke 4 (Reich, Oviedo) 6:25. Penalties: Lang KRW (hooking) 2:43, Belanger RLM (cross checking) 10:12.
GAME DATA – SOG – Red Lake 13-16-18-47, Kam River 12-19-8-39; Power plays (goals-chances) – Red Lake (3-4), Kam River (0-2); Goaltenders – Red Lake: Kiev Kineshanko, Red Lake, Austin Madger. A: 750
