Barring the unforeseen, the Northern Michigan Black Bears will be calling Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan home next season and, judging by the way they have played in two games there thus far, it could be a good fit.
After falling behind two games to nothing in the best-of-seven Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League championship series to the North Bay Skyhawks, the Black Bears, who are playing their home games in the series at the Chi Mukwa (Big Bear) Community Recreation Centre in the Michigan Sault, won a pair of games this weekend to even the series at two games apiece.
On Friday night, fans from both sides of the St. Mary's River showed up at the Big Bear and were treated with a lengthy matchup that ended well into the night.
With the Black Bears facing a must win situation in game three, both teams used the opening period as an adjustment to the bigger ice surface of the Big Bear, which saw the games being played on an Olympic sheet of ice – 200 feet long by 100 feet wide instead of the usual 200' by 85'.
After going scoreless through the first two periods, Chase Gallacher opened the scoring for the Skyhawks at 6:07 of the third on the power play.
The Bears had no intentions of going down without a fight and peppered North Bay goaltender Mike Lalande with 19 shots in the period and managed to tie the game with just under four minutes remaining in regulation time as Kyle Jacobson beat Lalande to send the game into extra time.
Little did anyone know at the time, but it was going to be a long night.
Both teams went though the first overtime period somewhat cautious with neither team having many great scoring chances.
In the second overtime period, the teams traded numerous scoring chances as Tony Stoehr in the Northern Michigan goal and Lalande for the Skyhawks fell into a groove. That groove held up late into the third overtime.
Late in the third overtime period, at 18:16 , Mike Herbert became the hero for the Black Bears by deflecting a Ryan Hugget point shot past Lalande ending the four-hour marathon.
Lalande stopped 67 shots in the loss while Stoehr stopped 40 to pick up the victory.
Saturday afternoon was a different story altogether. On the heels of their triple overtime victory the previous night, the Black Bears used a three goal second period to secure a 5-0 victory in game four to extend the NOJHL championship even further.
Ryan Behnke opened the scoring for Northern Michigan in the first period with a power play goal, one of four power play goals in the game for the Bears, at 17:16.
Jared Lavender gave the Black Bears a two goal cushion at 1:50 of the second period before the Bears, with the Hawks shorthanded due to a spearing major handed to tough guy Dustin McCrank, scored twice on that man advantage to all but secure the win. Colin Sarfeh and Chris Kraft scored the goals.
Jim Ceglarek capped off the scoring in the third period with a power play goal at 16:29. Lalande and Chris Abbey, who played the third period for North Bay, combined to stop 39 shots while Stoehr was not very busy stopping 18 shots for the shutout.
Following Saturdays convincing win, Bears coach Gerry Lortie commented on his team making some adjustments after being outshot and at times outplayed during the first period of the victory.
"We just changed our forecheck a little bit and got on them a little faster," Lortie said. "We shortened up the neutral zone (by having the defencemen) standing high. That was the key to the forecheck and that's what changed the game around.
"If it wasn't for our goaltending (in the first period), we could have been down two or three goals," Lortie went on to say. "They (North Bay) played good in the first but had nothing left after that (due to Friday's four-hour marathon)."
Lortie also commented on the difference in play from the first two games in North Bay and the last two in Michigan.
"We did a really good job defensively," said Lortie, "especially the last two games. In the first two games we gave up 11 goals and the last two games we've only given up one. The hard work and the prolific forecheck is creating the turnovers and that's been our game all year.
"I think we have a little bit of confidence now (going into North Bay). We're going in there pretty confident now that we can play a little better in their rink."
With game five scheduled for Monday, game six will be back at the Big Bear Arena in Michigan Sault on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. with game seven, should it be necessary, scheduled for Wednesday night in North Bay.