County Kings product Gerrit Kempers hit a major PJHL milestone Thursday, picking up is 100th point in his 110th PJHL game. (Jason Parks/Gazette Staff)
The Picton Pirates will be looking to close out 2024 with a flourish as they near the top of the Tod Division standings.
The Pirates (19-7-2, 40 points) were a single point away from moving ahead of the idle Frankford Huskies over the weekend and into first place on a points basis -at least momentarily before games in hand were realized.
Picton managed only a single point out of a contest with the Lakefield Chiefs before bombing the visiting North Kawartha Knights 10-1 at home on Thursday.
Then, as expected, the bad habits that creep into a hockey team’s lineup after a blowout win kept Picton from putting forth a better effort in the first period of Friday’s road game in Napanee. Picton came close to coming back on the Raiders but fell just short 4-3.
“I thought we generated a lot of good scoring chances but we just didn’t capitalize on them,” Pirates skipper Jamie Lane said following his club’s 2-1 overtime loss in Lakefield on Tuesday night. “We missed open nets and drilled posts in the first period and it could have been 3-0 for us after 20 minutes.”
But an age old axiom for those involved in the junior game is that what a game should be and isn’t after 20 minutes almost always means it’s going to be an unexpected nail biter in the last 20 minutes and that’s exactly what happened to the Pirates as they paid a mid-week visit to Lakefield.
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes where the acrobatic exploits of Chiefs starter Ayden Bulmer kept the visitors in check, Picton finally broke the ice in the second. Afforded a two man advantage, Picton clicked on the powerplay as Owen Findlay and Gerrit Kempers set up Aiden Treverton who fired home his 14th of the season at 12:38 to make it 1-0 Pirates.
After the host Chiefs beat a steady path to the sin bin in the second, the Pirates were due for the same fate in the third and it was on the man advantage where Lakefield fired an equalizer.
Greg Sheedy’s shot made it through a maze of legs and beat Picton starter Nic McGrayne at 6:59 to square the affair at 1-1.
Picton was able to kill off a late penalty to send the game to overtime and the Pirates had a couple of great chances to escape with the extra point however Mr. Bulmer had other plans.
Finally, with time winding down, Alex Whitney picked the corner clean on a nifty back hand effort with just seconds left in the extra session to win it for the Chiefs.
On Thursday, the visiting North Kawartha Knights got the first goal of the game on a power play tally off the stick of Jeremy Poulin at the midway point of the first period.
After that, it was decidedly all Picton over the final 50 minutes of the game. North Kawartha made the trip to Prince Edward County with just 11 skaters and it was tough sledding for the visitors. Picton fired 48 pucks at North Kawartha netminder Ibrahim Tahir who did his best to keep the game as close as it was through the opening 30 minutes or so.
Offensively, Picton got great mileage from Liam Rice who fired a pair of goals and added two helpers.
Fellow sophomore Luc Amat capped Picton’s offensive explosion with a natural hat trick in the third period.
Other goal getters included Dorian Rimmer, Mr. Kempers, Zack Brooks, Mr. Treverton, and Cole Stevenson. Rookie Trevor Brooks had five assists in the game. Cole Stevenson added a trio of helpers while Mr. Kempers picked up his 100th Provincial Junior Hockey League point with an assist on Mr. Amat’s first tally in the third.
On Friday in Napanee, Picton surrendered a pair of even strength goals in the first period and were chasing the Raiders all night.
The Pirates exhibited some jam to start the second and Mr. Stevenson bagged a power play goal 46 seconds in to carve the Raiders’s lead in half at 2-1.
Just under two minutes later, Mr. Stevenson and Zack Brooks picked up helpers on Mr. Treverton’s 16th of the year to tie the game at 2-2.
But as quick as Picton tied the game, the Raiders untied it with back-to-back tallies off the stick of Trent Williams and Spencer Cranley who re-established the Napanee two goal bulge.
Late in the third, Picton crawled closer as Mr. Stevenson picked up his 100th PJHL point with a goal with under four minutes left but the Pirates would get no closer this night in a 4-3 set back.
The Pirates are eager to get back to their winning ways as they close out 2024 with some substantial competition. The hard charging Amherstview Jets are here on Thursday evening and Picton caps off 2024 with a visit from Frankford on a rare Saturday afternoon start. Puck drop is at 3 p.m.
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