Thunder Bay took it to the Rangers on the opening face off.  The North Star’s Jesse Taylor scored the Bay’s first goal 25 seconds into the opening period.  His hard shot from the right face off beat the Rangers’ goalie Alex Reichle to put the North Stars up 1-0.

Two Ranger penalties two minutes later put Thunder Bay on a 5-on-3 power play.  As the first penalty ended, the North Stars’ Kris Kellaway put a rebounding puck from a hard shot from the Rangers’ blue line into the net to put Thunder Bay up 2-0.  Less than four minutes had run off the clock.

Three minutes later, the North Stars’ Daniel Delpaggio picked up the puck along the right boards in the Rangers’ zone, beat the defense low and beat the goalie from the top of the crease on a backhander high to put Thunder Bay up 3-0.

A Ranger interference penalty at the 7 minute mark resulted in another North Star goal a minute later.  This time the Bay team scored the power play from the left faceoff.  Matthias Gardiman scored the power play goal to put the Bay up 4-0.

Seconds after the fourth goal, the Rangers drew their fourth penalty, a trip.  In the first 8 minutes of play, the Rangers had drawn four penalties, given up four goals and were faced with skating off the fourth penalty.

To their credit, they did.  Helped by a Thunder Bay penalty and playing in a 4-on-4 situation, the Rangers scored their opening goal of the season 30 seconds later.  Trevor Hoth scored a backhander from the slot on a rebound off the Thunder Bay goalie to cut the North Star lead to 4-1.

That goal and two successive North Star penalties got the Iron Ranger’s got the Rangers’ offense going.  In the last 5 minutes of the opening period, the Rangers showed they could move the puck and create scoring opportunities in the North Star zone

They played 5-on-5 in those last 5 minutes and 5-on-5 hockey in the opening 8 minutes of the second period.  The refs finally seemed content to let the two teams play.

Six minutes into the second period, North Stars’ Taylor Santorelli scored a goal when the Rangers’ defense failed to clear the puck.  The Bay forwards locked up the Rangers in the Ranger zone setting up Santorelli’s goal to put Thunder Bay up 5-1.

Four minutes later, the North Stars caught the Minnesota team running around in the Ranger’s zone and executed a neat passing play the resulted Brandon Wolframe scoring.  Thunder Bay led 6-1 with 9 minutes left in the second period.

At that point the refs started whistling calling 5 penalties on Thunder Bay and one on the Rangers.  The result was with three minutes  to go in the period, the Rangers had the 5-on-3 advantage.  Jonathon Losurdo scored a power play from the weak side just after the first Bay penalty ended.  He one-timed a pass from the right into the open net to cut the score to 6-2 going into the third period.

The opening minutes of the third period, the Iron Rangers had Thunder Bay on their heels trying to skate off a 5 minute major.  Then they scored a goal that was ruled no goal because a high stick.  The ref who called the high stick ruled that the puck bounced off the Thunder Bay player, but was not controlled by the player.  Since the player had not controlled the puck, that is was no goal.

YHH had position and our camera caught part of the sequence.  It is our opinion that the high stick was delivered by a North Star defense man, not a Ranger, as the puck fell between him and the goalie.  From the pictures, there was no ref low left and the high stick call was made by the linesman from the left point.

Instead of cutting the lead to 6-3 with still penalty time remaining on the major penalty, the goal was waved off.  The Rangers sagged after the North Stars’ penalty killed the rest of the major and took four penalties in the next 5 minutes of play.  The Bay’s Cary Brown scored a power play goal at the 8 minute mark and Trevor Hynnes scored at the 9 minute mark to end the scoring 8-2.

The refs diminished Tuesday night what should have been a reasonable game.  Except for the end of the period and the start of the second, they never allowed the game to develop a flow.  Part of the reason is that they were out of position.  Did they know the ref supervisor for the league attended the game?

The Thunder Bay team was in good form.  They have speed at the forwards and are quick and should be the favorites this year in the SIJHL.  As for the Iron Rangers, they were more the “rusty Rangers” last night.  At times they played well enough to dominate play.  Knowing Rangers’ coach Chris Walby, last night’s performance is likely to change.

YHH likes that American flag on the shoulder of the Rangers’ players.  It would be nice to take a picture of that flag in a championship game this year, especially if played in the Hoyt Lakes Arena.  The Ranger fans were tough last night on their own team, but tougher on the North Stars.  The refs? “Forget about’em”.