PORT HARDY—Both North Island midget house teams were left to rue missed chances as they suffered defeat in their final games of the annual Port Hardy Minor Hockey midget tourney hosted at Don Cruickshank Memorial Arena last weekend.
Hosts Port Hardy qualified for the fourth-place game against Comox Valley after drawing 3-3 with the visitors in round-robin play and beating out the Cougars 3-0.
The local side started the brighter of the two and deservedly took the lead courtesy of a David Shaw strike from the blue line.
A two-minute spell towards the end of the period saw them lose that lead as Comox notched up three close-range efforts in quick succession to take a 3-1 lead into the period break.
Shaw struck again midway through the second to pull one back for Port Hardy, only to see the visitors regain their two-goal buffer almost straight from the puck-drop.
The home side showed its heart to fight back again, Dani Dawson finding the net off a Brett Walker assist to finish the period trailing by one.
The visitors struck two minutes into the third, making the comeback more difficult, and a series of penalties left the home side short-handed for much of the remaining time, putting the visitors out of reach.
Port McNeill's Whalers faced off against the Campbell River Cougars in the sixth-place decider after the round-robin stages.
Both sides kept a shutout though the first period, Port McNeill coming closest to breaking the deadlock as Tyren Dustin saw his shot careen off the upright.
The visitors got on the scoresheet first with a put-back effort with 12:53 left in the second and doubled their lead 23 seconds later against a short-handed home side.
The Cougars stretched out to 4-0 as both sides racked up the penalty minutes throughout the period before Klyde Pausang pulled one back for the Whalers with just under two minutes remaining in the period, stuffing the puck in from close range after Connor Scott's shot was saved.
The home side had no time for any more of a come back as the combined penalty minutes— sixty-five between the two sides — caused the buzzer to sound the end of the game just two and a half minutes into the third, putting an end to the scrap that had just started on ice.