Pirates show life with wins over Napanee, Port Hope

Story and photos by Jason Parks
The Picton Pirates put in a quiet and determined practice on Tuesday evening.

Not much needed to be said after the Napanee Raiders skated into town last Saturday and ruined Picton’s Thanksgiving weekend with an 11-2 drubbing.

And, if Picton (4-5-2) needed any impetus in redeeming themselves, the Provincial Junior Hockey League scheduler offered an early gift. Who was Picton’s first opponent after losing a lopsided affair to the Napanee Raiders?

Why, the Napanee Raiders of course. Talk about motivation staring you in the face.

“We just came into practice Tuesday night and put in a solid bit of work. Not much needed to be said, we just regrouped and had a short memory,” said Picton captain Gerrit Kempers.

On Thursday, Picton got a massive effort from goalkeeper Nick Parado whose 44 saves allowed the Pirates to snap a three game skid and down the Raiders 3-1.

Picton’s Nick Parado made 44 saves Thursday as the Pirates bested the visiting Napanee Raiders.

The Pirates then followed that up with a 5-2 win in Port Hope on Saturday, giving Picton its first two-game winning streak of the season. Cohen Bedore made 26 saves for his second win of the year.

“Both our goalies played great this weekend and we had a much better effort in front of them. Nick and Cohen are a solid tandem,” Kempers added.

Picton’s scoring hasn’t been a problem this season however the club’s defence has been hit or miss. With plenty of offensive fire power up front, the club’s focus has to be on stronger play inside its own blue line.

So sayeth the captain.

“Playing simple hockey in our own end and getting the job done, that has to be our focus.”

Scratch the Cats

On Saturday at the Jack Burger Sports Complex, the Bucs were trailing 1-0 in the first when Ty Mulder accepted a Blake Brown pass, tried a toe curl move on a Port Hope defender and beat Panthers starter Jackson McQuade top shelf for his first PJHL goal at 11:56.

The hosts broke that tie partway through first to take a 2-1 lead to the dressing room but the final 40 minutes was all Picton.

Picton defenceman Ty Mulder scored twice on Saturday, powering the Pirates to a 5-2 win over host Port Hope.

Backstopped by Bedore who came up with 18 stops over periods 2 and 3, the locals tied the game in the second with Trenton native Kirk Stevenson firing home his third of the year thanks to help from Brown and Alex Lavender.

Picton was skating down hill in the third. Isaiah More found Mulder for his second of the campaign and the game winning tally at 12:09.

Less than two minutes later, Ben Smith iced the win for Picton at the midway point of the period with his fourth and Kempers slid the puck into a vacated Port Hope polyester pavilion with 60 seconds left, making the score 5-2.

It Starts In Goal

There wasn’t much separating the Bucs and Raiders through the first period Thursday night night as both Parado and Napanee’s Denholm Blair were spot on in the opening 20 minutes. After last weekend’s thrashing at the hands of the visitors, it was key for the Pirates to survive the opening frame and they accomplished that intermediate but key task.

Then, there was light. Picton was the first to bulge twine in the second.

Lurking inside the blue line, Keenan Wiles picked off a lame duck pass by a Raiders defender and snapped the puck by Blair inside the opening five minutes of the second to give the Bucs a lead they would never relinquish.

At the other end, Parado was stellar, making 21 saves in the middle stanza to keep his team in the lead after 40 minutes.

In the third, Picton must have sensed they would need some insurance heading down the stretch and it came from the captain during a clutch penalty kill.

Near the Picton goal line, Mulder cleared the puck to centre ice where Joey Coates recovered the disc. Coates then fed a streaking Kempers near the blue line where the Ameliasburgh native took possession, skated a couple of strides and beat Blair clean whilst shorthanded at the 14:24 mark to make it a two goal spread in favour of the hosts.

After Raiders bench boss Ben Hagerman went for an early pull of Blair in search of Napanee’s first goal, Coates picked up his 12th of the year off a Smith feed into an emptied cage.

Raider Ben Neilssen finally solved Parado inside the final minute to ruin the Belleville native’s shutout bid, making the final 3-1.

The win marked the debut of defenceman Ashwin Laird. The Kingstonian had been working out with the RMC Paladins and is a Kingston AAA product who didn’t play hockey last season.

The Pirates host Amherstview on Thursday and then make a return trip to Port Hope on Saturday.

ON BOARD WITH THE PIRATES: There’s little this correspondent can say about the loss of former executive member and volunteer Susan Rose that won’t be said in the coming days. Sue, with her late husband Rick who served as club General Manager, gave tirelessly to the organization in the late 90s and early 2000s. Their tireless efforts culminated with Picton’s first ever Empire League Championship on March 17, 1999.

At a time when billet players weren’t really an item in Jr. C hockey, the Rose family housed several players including Americans Jason Waugaman, Peter Banasick and Ukrainians Alex Barnakovsky and Igor Volkov. Providing a safe and caring environment for visiting players was just one of hundreds of tasks Sue undertook to make the club successful both on and off the ice. Your correspondent sends his deepest condolences to the Rose family.