[caption id="attachment_18319" align="aligncenter" width="250"]
Ryan Wildman scored three times against the Blind River Neavers in Saturday’s 5-2 win by the Abitibi Eskimos.
(Photo courtesy NOJHL and www.eskis.com)[/caption]
There’s little doubt that head coach Paul Gagné of the Abitibi Eskimos is pleased with the two impressive victories by the Eskis over Espanola and Blind River over the weekend – but it would have been a better Thanksgiving gift had the black-and-gold not bombed out 5-1 in Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday afternoon.
While two-out-of-three on a tough three-games-in-three-days roads trip might be nice, the NOJHL has to be worried about attendance records in some of the southern reaches of the league.
The new Espanola franchise is being avidly supported by the Manitoulin islands fans (actually, it’s not a new team – the Rivermen are the transplanted North Bay Trappers from last season – this year’s edition of the Trappers are an expansion team). On the island last Friday, more than 600 turned out and watched their new team drip a 5-3 decision to the Eskis – Shane Hiley leading the way with a pair of goals.
For the rest of the three-game road trip, fan support was all but non-existent. In Blind River on Saturday night, the Eskis thumped the Beavers 5-2 – but there were so few fans in the rink that it might have seemed as though they were playing an inter-squad scrimmage on a Tuesday night at the Jus Jordan Arena. Just 202 fans turned out to watch the game.
It was even more embarrassing for the league on Sunday afternoon – the Eskis lost 5-1 to a strong Sault Ste. Marie Thunderbird squad – but few in the Steel City seemed to care – there were a paltry 157 fans in the seats for the impressive win by the home team.
Thanks to the four-point boost, the Eskis are now in a fourth-place tie with the Elliot Lake Bobcats (the Bobcats have a game in hand), each with 12 points. The Eskis have five wins and five losses, and a pair of points from two tough overtime losses. The Bobcats and Eskis are four points behind the third-place Rivermen. The T-Birds top the standings with a 12-2 record for 24 points, four points ahead of the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners – who are 10-1 with three games in hand over the T-Birds.
In Friday’s game at Espanola, the Rivermen actually outshot the Eskis by a 25-17 margin – but Eskis goaltender Sylvain Miron held the upper hand, stopping 22 of the 25 shots he faced.
New addition Shane Hiley scored twice for the Eskis in Friday’s win – including an empty netter to seal the win late in the third period. Tommy Labrecque and Brady Clouthier scored a pair of second period goals, 30 seconds apart, to help pace the Eskis to their first win after two consecutive loses.
In Saturday’s game against the Beavers, Ryan Wildman almost put on a one-man show – he scored three times in the 5-2 victory, including a regular-strength goal, a short-handed goal, and a power-play goal. Hiley continued his weekend scoring spree with a pair of assists in Saturday’s game, in which the Eskis outshot the Beavers by a 43-35 margin. Miron picked up his second successive win in goal for the Eskis.
The Eskis had to be happy and confident following two road wins in two nights against teams that are capable of upsets - but the Thunderbirds brought the Eskis back to earth quickly, as the T-Birds jumped out to a 2-0 lead with the first six minutes.
T-Birds Gavin Burbach and Anthony Miller scored at 5:14 and 5:23 respectively in the first period, putting the tired Eskis behind the proverbial Eight-Ball – with still two full periods and two-thirds of the first period yet to play. The Eskis were training 4-0 by the middle of the third period when Marc Dubé broke the ice and scored for the Eskis – but the damage had been done. Burbach – who now leads the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey in goals with 14 - scored his second of the game later in the third (he also had an assist for a three-point afternoon) as the Eskis dropped a 5-1 decision to the league leaders.
Sylvain Miron was once again in goal for the Eskis.
The Eskis host the fifth place (4-8-0-3) North Bay Trappers this Saturday at The Igloo. Opening faceoff is 7:30 p.m.
