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Kings take Midget title

The North Zone Kings won the Kamloops Tier 1 Midget Thanksgiving International Hockey Classic
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The North Zone Kings, Kamloops Midget Tier 1 Thanksgiving International Hockey Classic champions. (Photo Submitted)

The North Zone Kings proved they were in shape on Thanksgiving Monday.

The injury-riddled Kings played two games in seven hours with 11 skaters, winning both the final and semifinal of the Kamloops Tier 1 Midget Thanksgiving International Hockey Classic at McArthur Island Sports Centre.

The team gutted out some impressive hockey to shade North Vancouver Storm 3-2 in the gold-medal tilt after dispatching Chilliwack Bruins 3-2 in the semis.

The Kings opened the scoring in the first period of the final as Nick Teale buried a rebound after Cole Johnson’s feed sprung MVP Joe Eggert behind the defence in the offensive zone. Eggert’s shot was partially stopped by the Vancouver tender as the puck squeaked through, laying loose behind him.

The North Zone squad doubled their lead just under two minutes later as Lucas Wood’s dump-in bounced favourably off the backboards and onto Eggert’s stick which he promptly swung to his backhand in tight. The Kings outshot North Van 15-4 in the opening 20.

Maintaining excellent discipline throughout the weekend, the Kings kept their feet moving and played a smart game at both ends of the ice with seven regular d-men and four regular forwards available over the final three days of play.

North Vancouver regrouped after the ice clean in the middle of the second period and came out strong in the second half but the Kings maintained their defensive structure and kept on the puck holding off the attack. Caleb Mitchell made several key saves. The Kings struck again as their lethal powerplay converted at 15:02 of the third period as Teale finished a backdoor feed by Eggert. The secondary assist went to Eric Noren.

North Van pressed hard for the balance of the third as the kings started to tire losing yet another player to injury minutes into the period, leaving them with only nine skaters and forcing coach Jared Barendregt to run with three dee and an all dee-forward line of Lee Christensen, KT Walthers and Johnson.

North Van finally got one through on a stellar Mitchell as a point shot was tipped in accidentally by one of the North Zone rearguards with 2:22 left. North Van pulled their goalie with about 90 seconds left and pulled within one at 25 seconds.

Walthers opened the scoring off a slick feed from Eggert against Chilliwack, who answered on a powerplay snipe past starter Ty Sedlacek in the second. Chilliwack went ahead 2-1 just 81 seconds later on a high wrister over Sedlacek’s blocker side.

The Kings answered with powerplay markers from Teale and Eggert 51 seconds apart. Cole Johnson pocketed a pair of assists.

Eggert supplied two goals as North Zone shelled South Zone 7-0 in Saturday morning preliminary play. Johnson earned 1+2, while Damien Coljee-Fehr also scored in support of Mitchell.

The Kings got two goals from Eggert in a 2-2 draw with Calgary NorthWest later Saturday.

The North Zone lost 4-2 to North Vancouver Sunday with Teale and Noren getting goals.