Fans from St. Ignace turned out strong for Saturday’s Black Bears victory over North Bay at Big Bear Ice Arena in Sault Ste. Marie.

Playing at their adopted home, Big Bear Ice Arena in Sault Ste. Marie, the Black Bears won a grueling three-overtime thriller Friday, April 15, by a 2-1 score, closing the Skyhawks’ best-of-seven series lead to two games to one.

Then on the same ice the following afternoon, after a tense first-period, the Black Bears stepped up the defense, began racking up power play goals, and watched their rivals completely fall apart. The result was a crushing 5-0 victory that tied the series and shifted the momentum completely back to Northern Michigan.

With little rest, the Black Bears were slated to play game five back at North Bay Monday, April 21, where the Skyhawks had won the first two games, Tuesday, April 12, and Wednesday, April 13. The teams were to travel back to Big Bear Tuesday, April 22, with a scheduling conflict preventing the teams from getting a day between games. If the series needs a game seven, it would be at North Bay later this week (date and time not determined at press time).

Both games at Big Bear were marked by the support of contingents of more than 100 St. Ignace fans who made the trips and enthusiastically showed their support.

Black Bears 5,

North Bay Skyhawks 0

Two teams that surely had to be tired from more than four hours of hockey the previous night came out Saturday afternoon and began with a solid first period, with the Black Bears taking a 1-0 lead on a power play goal by Ryan Behnke (assists Kyle Jacobson, Jordan Boman). Terrific goaltending by Tony Stoehr and tough defense overall set the tone for the hosts.

By the second period, however, it was clear which team still had gas in its tank. The shot statistics illustrated the glaring difference: After they were outshot 14-10 in the first stanza, the Black Bears put up 34 shots to just four by the visitors the rest of the way.

Northern Michigan took a 2-0 lead just 1:50 into the second when Jared Lavendar scored off passes from Mike Caprio and Tyler Huskey. It was when North Bay’s Dustin McCrank was penalized for spearing Black Bears goalie Tony Stoehr, however, that the game really was taken over by the Black Bears.

The penalty was for five minutes, with McCrank getting kicked out and earning a four-game suspension. When a second North Bay penalty gave the Black Bears a five-man-to-three advantage, they twice took advantage: Colin Sarfeh netted one off a Chris Kraft pass at the 18:27 mark, then just 51 seconds later and with 14 seconds left in the second penalty, Kraft tallied with Mike Herbert and Sarfeh assisting.

Suddenly, the Black Bears had a commanding 4-0 lead.

When North Bay failed to mount an attack early in the final period, they completely lost it. The suffered three ejections from players verbally abusing the officials, making for a parade of Skyhawks being escorted off the ice. Northern Michigan’s final goal came on another power play conversion, this time by Jim Ceglarek (assists Ryan Huggett, Steve Kruszewski).

Earlier Games

After 48 minutes of overtime Friday night, the Black Bears got a goal from Michael Herbert to finally pick up their first victory of the series in game three, 2-1. Kyle Jacobson had tied the game with a third-period goal to send it into OT.

Stoehr was magnificent in the net, stopping 40 shots in 108 minutes.

The first game of the series was a heartbreaking loss for the Black Bears at North Bay Tuesday, April 12, 6-5. They lost leads of 4-2 and 5-3 in the second period. Kruszewski scored twice.

North Bay took a 2-0 series lead with a 5-2 victory the following night, also on their home ice.