The Kenora Midget AAA Thistles continue to thrive on the road.

After dropping four straight games — including three straight on home ice — the Thistles were on the road for three games in three days and they came away with two big wins.

In what head coach Doug Novak said was a complete effort from his team, Kenora opened their busy weekend on Friday, Nov. 21, with a dominating 8-1 victory in Portage la Prairie against the Central Plains Capitals.

Thistle Trey Palmero opened the scoring in the first period with a power play goal to give Kenora the 1-0 lead after 20 minutes. In the second frame, the Thistles exploded offensively as David Pryde, Turner Santin, Trevor Kavanaugh and Brandon Stanley all scored within the first nine minutes of the period to catapult Kenora to a commanding 5-0 lead.

Stanley and Kavanaugh found the back of the net again early in the third period and Josh Oberg scored the Thistles last goal to make it an 8-0 rout. The Capitals beat Brandon Bodnar late in the third to break his shutout bid, but it was obviously not enough as Kenora rolled to a seven-goal win.

“We played really good and for 60 minutes,” Novak said, noting it’s always good to open a long road trip with a convincing victory. “Our power play played really well and we did a lot of really great things in that game.”

Bodnar stopped 26 of 27 shots for his second win of the season and Oberg led the team with four points, three of which were assists.

With momentum on their side, the Thistles traveled further west to Brandon to take on one of the league’s elite teams: the Wheat Kings.

Once again, Kenora started fast and took a 1-0 lead just over a minute into play thanks to a Jack Bernie goal. However, the Wheat Kings replied on the power play a few minutes later and the score remained tied 1-1 after a period.

Proving to be the Thistles’ Achilles heel on this night, Brandon added two more power play goals in the second period and held on to a close 3-1 win. Despite the loss, Novak was pleased that the team went toe-to-toe with one of the league’s best teams.

“We knew Brandon was going to be tough as they’re in the top of the league and I thought we played really well against them,” he said. “We lost, but they got three power play goals. We had some key chances that we didn’t capitalize on, so I thought that game could have went either way.”

On Sunday, Nov. 23, Kenora closed out their roadtrip against the Southwest Cougars. While you never take a team for granted, this was a game the Thistles needed to win if they wanted to distance themselves from some of the league’s bottomfeeders.

The Cougars and Thistles traded goals through the first two periods to head into the third tied at 2-2. Even though it was the third period of the final game of the long road trip, the Thistles willed their way to a win on the backs of goals by Stanley and Kavanaugh to win 4-2.

Bodnar earned his second win of the weekend and Kavanaugh and Jake Tresoor led the team in scoring with two points each.

For his efforts, Bodnar was named Chicken Chef Player of the Week for his weekend goals against average of 1.50 and .957 save percentage.

“The third game in three days is usually a tough one and the boys played really well,” Novak said of their effort. “They pulled it all together for 60 minutes and played a good road game. They did all of the little things right. They worked hard to get that victory.”

The two wins pushed Kenora’s record to 6-11-0 on the season, which equates to 12 points and to ninth place in the Manitoba Midget AAA Hockey League. While they are starting to distance themselves from the bottom three teams in the league, Kenora is still seven points behind the eighth place Yellowhead Chiefs. However, it should be noted that Kenora does have some games in hand on teams above them in the standings, so their home stand this upcoming weekend will be increasingly important if they want to work their way up into playoff position.

“You just got to keep climbing the ladder,” Novak said when asked if this weekend will help build the team’s momentum going forward. “Now we have to prepare for Friday and take it 60 minutes at a time because we know we have another three-game weekend.”

Kenora will host Southwest on Friday and Saturday at the Kenora Recreation Centre before closing out the weekend in Winnipeg against the Thrashers.

Puck drop for both home games this weekend is scheduled for 8 p.m.

Brandon.Logan@sunmedia.ca

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