Thunder Bay Jr. B/Juvenile/AAA Hockey News
Kings, Wolverines open tourney with wins

Oct. 2--The Thunder Bay Jr. B/Juvenile/AAA Hockey League annual preseason tournament for the Joe Ward memorial trophy at the Tournament Centre opened Thursday with two games with the Mitsubishi Motors Major Midget Kings and K&A Wolverines coming away with victories.

Game one saw the Kings get by the Nip-Rock Elks 3-1 while the Wolverines dumped the Northern Hawks 8-2 in the night cap.

Joe Szura, Todd Skirving and Mitchell Fox scored for the Kings while Ehren Menard had the lone Nip-Rock marker.

Spencer Malone picked up the win making 10 saves while Curtis Lampkin and Thomas Gratz combined to face 37 shots in a losing cause for the Elks.

In the late game Jari Pihelgas and Matt Mitchell tallied twice for K&A with Sean Spenrath, Nathan Spina, Luke DeCal, and Tyler Rizzuto adding singles.

Michael Vis along with Ryan Powell were the Hawks' marksmen.

Davis Buchanan made 24 stops in goal for the Wolverines while Jason Jaundoo and Kirk Bodnar saw a combined 36 shots fired in their direction.

Tournament action resumes Friday back at the Tournament Centre with the Kings facing the Hawks at 9 a.m., K&A going up against the Superior Eagles at 11:30 a.m., the Elks squaring off vs. the Wolverines at 6 p.m. and wrapping up at 8:30 p.m. when the Eagles and Northern Hawks collide.

Round robin play concludes Saturday evening while the semifinals go Sunday morning followed by the title game that afternoon.

Click here for tournament schedules/summaries.

-JRB/JUV/AAA-