The dream of being the Midget Tier 2 Provincial champions is still alive for the host team Quesnel Thunder as it knocked off Fort St. John 5-3 in the last game of the round-robin game this afternoon (March 22).
Justin Salmons led the offensive charge for the home-town team with a natural hat-trick and a helper.
His father and head coach says, “Ya, he had a pretty good game.”
The Thunder scored two power-play goals in the first frame to get off to a good start.
Dyson Leneve (Mike Wright, Kaden Merritt) opened the scoring at 17:91, and Wright (Merritt, Salmons) made it 2-0 for Quesnel at 5:12.
Fort St. John took some “hard” penalties – hits to the head, slashing, boarding and cross checking, while the Thunder took a lot of tripping calls.
Coach Salmons says the northern team was taking a couple cheap shots, but he was happy with his boys who showed good discipline, didn’t get involved and skated away.
Quesnel went up 4-0 on second-period goals by Salmons (Cameron Hender, Ryan Murray) and Salmons (Jacque Gilkerson, Hender).
Coach Salmons says they stepped back a little bit and Fort St. John scored two quick ones early in the third stanza to cut the lead to 4-2.
“Then we had to regroup and turn things around again.”
Salmons (Wright) scored his third marker and insurance goal at 10:29.
However, Fort St. John scored seven seconds later, but the Thunder played “kitty bar the door” and ran the clock out.
Kaiden Ekstrom was between the pipes for the home-town team and Salmons says he had two great periods, hung in there during the third and made some big stops despite giving up three goals.
DJ Sauve, who sustained a leg injury in the previous game, dressed against Fort St. John and helped kill a couple of penalties.
Salmons says he thinks Sauve will be available to play in the championship game.
Quesnel takes on their nemesis from the north Prince George tonight (March 22) at 7:30 p.m.
The teams tied at 2-2 in round-robin play.