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Quesnel Thunder skate away with Midget Tier 2 Provincial championship

Quesnel Midget team showed winning races to puck, winning battles equates to winning games
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It was a Cinderella story that came true on March 22 when the Quesnel Thunder doubled Prince George 4-2 at West Fraser Centre.

The crowd went wild, gloves and sticks were flung in the air, hugs were exchanged and happy parents had tears in their eyes.

The Thunder were the Midget Tier 2 Provincial champions and the did it as the host team, which got a berth in the tournament because Quesnel hosted the championships.

When the Thunder knocked off Coquitlam 5-3 earlier in the day, head coach Gord Salmons said the team was really excited about getting the opportunity to avenge an overtime shoot-out loss to Prince George in the recent playoffs.

Quesnel opened the scoring at 16:52 of the first period when Kaden Merritt found the back of the Prince George net with assists going to Justin Salmons and team captain Mike Wright

Less than two minutes later Jacque Gilkerson (Cameron Hender, Salmons) scored when Quesnel had the one-man advantage.

There was no scoring, but the two squads race up and down the ice and blasting shots at both the goalies - Prince George fired 13 at Quesnel goalie Jakob Drapeau, who was outstanding between pipes as he had been throughout tournament, and the Thunder fired nine at P.G. goalie Joshua Adams.

Prince George built on their momentum and produced a frantic onslaught in the third period and they out shot the home-town team 17-2.

Drapeau was lights out in goalie and had Prince George players and their shaking their heads in disbelief.

Merritt (Wright) scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal at 13:02 of the third frame to give the Thunder at 3-0 lead in the championship game.

However, the Thunder’s nemesis from the north scored its first goal of game at 12:43 when Keinan Miller (unassisted) bent the twine behind Drapeau to narrow the gap to 3-1.

Hender put the home-town crowd at ease with an unassisted power-play marker at 8:01 to recoup the three-goal Quesnel lead.

Prince George scored its second goal - Ryan Mager (Aiden Weis, Alexander Nimmo) - but it was too little too late.

The Thunder hold the bragging rights as the Midget Tier 2 Provincial champions for 2018.