An incredible SIJHL hockey final needed extra time to decide a winner.
In a seven game series that saw the road team win ever game, the Thunder Bay North Stars held off a late rally from Fort Frances Lakers, who were the home team.
Fort Frances opened the scoring with a power play goal from Tie Schumacher almost 4 minutes into the first period. With Thunder Bay answering back with a goal from Easton Glousher just over 7 minutes into the game to even things up.
Most of the scoring was done in the second period.
Thunder Bay’s Eric Sheriff found the back of the net early on.
Fort Frances’ Teagan Wrolstad tied it up once again not long after that with a power play goal.
From there, the North Stars buried back to back goals. Evan Simeoni scored short handed and Lucas Bertolin also found the back of the net to put Thunder Bay up 4-2.
Tegan Wrolsted then scored his second goal of the night for the Lakers, to make it 4-3 North Stars heading into the third period.
With roughly 90 seconds left to go in regulation, Fort Frances had they goalie pulled for the extra attacker and Ronnie Bender scored late for the Lakers to send it to overtime.
Both goaltenders stood tall in net throughout the game. Connor Dunham-Fox made 41 saves for the North Stars, while Brady Cates stopped 26 shots.
The Ice For Kids Arena at the Memorial Sports Centre in Fort Frances was packed with fans in a sellout game.
James Cullison was the overtime hero for Thunder Bay. He scored almost half way through the extra frame to secure the Bill Salonen Cup for the North Stars. It’s the teams first championship since 2019.
