Fresh faced Pirates shade Chiefs before losing to Huskies

Story and photos by Jason Parks
The Picton Pirates (1-2-2) broke into the win column for the first time in 2026-27 with a thrilling 2-1 over time win against visiting Lakefield on Thursday.

But the Bucs were unable to gain any traction and a terrible first period led to their 6-3 demise in Frankford on Saturday. In terms of goal margin, the loss was Picton’s worst of the young season.

So was it a glass half full or glass half empty weekend for Picton? That question is best left answered privately by the players inside the Pirates’ dressing room. But it’s safe to say Picton, period-by-period, has proven to be a very tough out for opposing Provincial Junior Hockey League teams a handful of games into the season. A period here or there notwithstanding.

Home Cooking
In their home opener, the Pirates were down 1-0 after 20 minutes but nary an observer could blame Picton starter Cohen Bedore for the Lakefield marker. A scramble at the Picton net at 10:33 saw Charlie Blewitt pick the pocket of a Picton defender and cap off the sequence with a tap in tally.

Netminder Cohen Bedore blockers a puck away from the Picton goal.

From there, Bedore was stellar. The County Kings product turned aside 40 Chiefs volleys in the contest.

Picton finally figured out Lakefield starter Noah Groeneveld in the second. Ty Mulder picked up a loose puck at the Lakefield blue line and was presented with a 2-on-1 rush opportunity with Isaiah More.

Mulder deftly outwaited the Chiefs defender and then slipped the disc to More lurking in the slot. Picton’s sniper went low to the short side 2:01 into the second on Groenenveld to make it 1-1.

After a clean first period, both teams beat a steady path to the sin bin in a contest to see who would be the more undisciplined team on this night. Pirates veteran defencemen Will Potts and Matthew Petrut both skated over the line and were easy targets for the Ontario Hockey Association zebras calling the game.

Both Bedore and Groeneveld were spectacular and went save-for-save. Picton’s puckstopper had to be extra proficient early in overtime after Petrut was whistled for cross checking with five seconds left in regulation.

After Bedore and company kept Lakefield at bay early on in the extra session, Picton came alive.

Mulder led a magnificent dash up the ice and beat Groeneveld but not the post.

Moments later, it was the shifty skating More taking the puck from Mulder, putting some razzle dazzle on his rush and gaining time and space behind the Lakefield defence.

Isaiah More had both goals in Picton’s 2-1 overtime win against Lakefield Thursday.

It wasn’t a laser beam of a back hand but More’s second of the night was able to handcuff Groeneveld just enough so that the puck wobbled end-over-end, through the netminder’s paraphernalia and crested the goal line at 3:43 into the extra session.

“It was nice the guys stuck with it and were rewarded at the end,” Head Coach Rick Van Vlack told the Times. “We’ve only got six guys back from last year’s team so we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

The coach added a sermon on disciplined play was likely over due considering the untimely penalties Picton had taken over the last 124 minutes of Tod Division play.

“I don’t mind the guys sticking up for themselves and each other but there’s a time and place for it.”

Picton’s Isaiah More leads the charge along the bench after scoring in the season period at Thursday’s home opener.

A late start
On Saturday, Picton went back to Bedore but he and the Pirates couldn’t regain the form from Thursday in the cozy confines of the Dr. J McMullen Memorial Arena in Frankford.

With not much help in front of him, Bedore gave up goals to Liam Storms, Jake Sage and Thomas Kuipers in the opening 11 minutes. Nick Parado came off the Picton bench and steadied things in front of him, a Ty McCambridge power play goal notwithstanding.

Down 4-0, Picton chipped away in the second and at least made a game of it.

Devin Robinson turned some dogged forechecking into a scoring chance and Ben Smith made no mistake from the high hash marks at 1:20 in to make it 4-1.

Joey Coates had an assist on Picton’s first goal and fired home his fifth of the season on the power play at the midway point of the second to cave the Frankford lead in half at 4-2.

Gerrit Kempers and Kirk Stevenson added assists on the play.

Eager to regain a larger margin, the Huskies hunted for their next goal throughout the second only to be thwarted by Parado. Finally, Avery Wease caught the Picton goalie leaning off the post and banked one home to put the game out of reach.

Captain Gerrit Kempers picked up his first goal of the year Saturday in Frankford.

Keenan Wiles found Captain Gerrit Kempers inside the final minute for a power play marker to get the contest to 5-3 but Deke Ousterhout countered with a power play goal in the opening moments of the third. Despite stopping 31 shots in a little under 50 minutes, Parado took a tough luck loss.

Picton hosts Port Hope Thursday and makes their first trek to Lakefield on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

On Board with the Pirates: A big shout out to the game caller extraordinaire Kevin Dean who had the play-by-play on County 99.3 FM Saturday night. With his signature style Dean has been the voice of 10,000 games in his lengthy career. Picton hopes to have a few select road games on local radio this season…And speaking of voices, the club is honouring longtime public address announcer Dennis Calnan with special helmet decals, who passed away late this summer after a brief illness. The author of the Crow’s Nest Report is already sadly missed in Picton on Thursday nights.