Provincial major midget hockey final knotted up

The St. John’s Maple Leafs got a pair of third-period goals from Nick French and Paul Norman, the latter which would stand as the game-winner, to hand the Western Kings a 3-1 defeat and even their Newfoundland and Labrador Major Midget Hockey League final at a game apiece.

The homestanding Kings won the series-opener 5-4 on Adrian Ward’s goal 3:04 into double overtime.

The series shifts to the Mount Pearl Glacier next weekend for Games 3, 4 and 5 beginning Friday.

At the Corner Brook Civic Centre, French finished Sunday’s game with a pair of goals, and Andrew Curtis got the win in goal. Lucas Robinson had the only goal for Western.

It was only the third loss of the season for the Kings in 37 games. Western was 30-2 in the regular season, and swept the Tri-Pen Osprey in the best-of-seven semifinals.

In Game 1, Andrew Antle led the Kings with a pair of goals. Robinson and Skylar Coates also scored for the winners. Nick Gosse potted a pair of goals in a losing cause, while Lucas Osmond and Brandon Knight added singles.

Lucas Park stopped 41 saves for the win in the Kings’ net. Michael Fisher made 35 saves for the Leafs.

St. John’s was second in the regular-season standings this season at 21-9-2.

Next weekend’s games at The Glacier will be broadcast on Corner Brook’s local Rogers TV station, but will be available to fans on this end of the island on the Rogers website.

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Twitter: @telysports