NOJHL scores dramatic win over Siberia

(The following story is reprinted courtesy of Chris Dawson of BayToday.ca)

NORTH BAY -- It was almost like two games within one game and it all ended in a bizarre fashion when one of the most disliked players in the minds of North Bay fans brought the building to its feet.

Sudbury Northern Wolves forward Brian McGarry scored the overtime winner with less than a minute to play in extra time to give the NOJHL All-Stars a 6-5 victory over the Under-20 Siberian All-Star team Tuesday night at Memorial Gardens.

The goal came on an odd man rush where the sniper picked up a nice pass in the slot and avoided a poke check by Russian goalie Viktor Dolgushin then simply backhanded the puck into the empty cage for the victory.

“It’s always fun to score the big goal, probably the biggest game of the year so far,” said McGarry, who scored twice on the night and was named the player of the game for the NOJHL selects.

“It was a bit of a role change tonight,” he added.

“When you’ve got the fans that hate you in North Bay cheering when you score that winning goal and the coach gave us a chance to win it and that’s exactly what we did.”

Two games within a game

The game started off very slowly as the traveling Russian All-Stars seemed very unspectacular in the first half of the game.

The NOJHL All-Stars dominated the first period out shooting the visitors 14-4 and taking a 2-0 lead after one period on goals by the Sudbury Northern Wolves and former Skyhawk Rob Bonhomme and speedy Soo Thunderbird forward Mike MacMillan.

The Russians got on the board early in the second period as Alexander Arkhipov scored a shorthanded goal on a low screen shot that beat Skyhawks netminder Michael Lalande.

However, on the same powerplay Brian McGarry scored 38 seconds later to give the NOJHL their two goal lead once again.

The All-Stars increased their lead less than 45 seconds later as Blind River Beavers forward Shane Bailey scored on a nice backhand from the slot that went underneath the arm of Russian goalie Ivan Lisutin, who was chased after the goal and replaced by Viktor Dolgushin.

Skyhawks goaltender Michael Lalande who stopped 9 of 10 shots he faced was pulled halfway through the second period in favour of Manitoulin’s Billy Stone.

For Lalande it was a neat All-Star experience.

“They are really good at controlling the puck, cycling it and passing it and they don’t waste their opportunities, they tend to only shoot when they have a good scoring opportunity and I think that was the big difference tonight from what we are used to anyways,” said Lalande.

The Russians did make the most of their opportunities once Billy Stone took over. Vitaly Bogdashkin and Ivan Knyazhev cut the lead down to 4-3 with two goals in less than two minutes late in the second period as the Russians started to take over the game.

However, Mark Thorburn combined with Skyhawks Adam Cook and Justin Roy to restore as he blasted one between the legs of Dolgushin to make it 5-3 after two periods of play.

In the third the Russians capitalized on a 2 on 1 as Vasiley Mordvinov converted a sweet pass from Lev Ankudinov to make it 5-4.

The Russians completed the comeback on the powerplay as Anton Ahdanov went low blocker side on Stone to make it 5-5 at 12:05 of the third period.

Soo Thunderbirds coach Zoltan “Toots” Kovacs, who shared the NOJHL All-Star coaching duties with Kevin Kerr, was surprised with the Russian turnaround.

“The first period, period and a half guys were trying to feel each other out, not only our own players but feeling out the Russian players but as the game got going the boys raised the level of the game, they had to keep up with the Russian boys because they could sure move that puck so it was a great finish and it was a pleasure to be involved in something like this,” he said.

As the game went into overtime it seemed only a matter of time before the Russian All-Stars would put the game away. Billy Stone came up with a beauty game-saving stop on Alexander Zubkov two minutes into the extra frame.

The Russians continued to buzz in the NOJHL end zone before the odd man rush which ended with McGarry’s heroics.

All-Star Ice Chips

Skyhawks forwards Justin Roy and Adam Cook each recorded two assists for the NOJHL All-Star team…The Russian club beat the Abitibi Eskimos10-3 on Monday night in Iroquois Falls…No members of the Abitibi Eskimos or Northern Michigan Black Bears were included on the NOJHL selects…The NOJHL All-Stars wore their own home jerseys which meant the team had three players wearing number two and Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbirds forward Mark Thorburn was forced to wear a #20 Skyhawks jersey as he shared that number with Jesse Gionette. Four words: “All-Star Game Jerseys!"...Attendance for the game which competed against Canada's World Junior semifinal was 1,540.