Game one of the 2022 Sault Ste Marie High School Hockey League best of three playoffs took to the ice on Monday, March 21 with the St Mary’s Knights facing the Korah Colts in high school hockey action.

Kaylob Thibodeau catches a pass from the neutral zone from Colt Brady Bayles to break pas the Knights’ defence to find the back of St Mary’s goaltender Joel Belec to give Korah a 1 – o lead 3:15 into the first period. Nik Vecchio finds the back of Korah netminder Matthew Gagne’s left shoulder from the right faceoff circle to pull St Mary’s even 1 – 1 at the 6:41 mark of the first. Cole Masse had the assist on Vecchio’s tying goal. At 3:23 of the first, Dylan Garson give the Colts with finding the back of Belec’s net on a Korah penalty shot to give the Colts a 2 – 1 lead. With Korah on a powerplay from the right blueline, Ronan Provenzano nets the Colts third through traffic at 12:45 of the second period. Nathan Keranen and Carter Benka added the helpers on Provenzano’s powerplay goal. 35 seconds into the third period, Christian Omollo skates coast to coast to close the gap to one for St Mary’s at the 14:25 mark of the period with Nathan Palmer and Ben Laderoute setting up Omollo’s goal.

Knight forward Daniel Bumbaco fires a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle to find the back of Gagne’s net to tie the game 3 – 3 for St Mary’s. Brek DiPiero notched the lone contributor on Bumbaco’s tying goal. Scoring his second of the contest at 5:33, Bumbaco give the Knights’ a 4 – 3 lead with 5:33 remaining in game one. Nick Kelly and Dawson Wilson added the assist on Bumbaco’s goal. With Belec sprawled across the St Mary’s crease, Provenzano sinks his second of the game to even the game 4 – 4 for the Colts with 4:42 left in the game. Keranen and Joshua McIntyre registered the helpers on Provenzano’s tying goal. With a scoreless three on three five minute overtime, the Knights and Colts headed to a shootout with Bumbaco sinking one for the Knights while Korah’s Thibodeau scored two in the shootout to give the Colts a 5 – 4 game one win.

Colt coach Chris Perri told Saultsports that “today’s game demonstrated that both teams have heart and can battle back when behind. Kudos to the St. Mary’s team that battled their way back in the third period from a two goal deficit and went up 4 – 3 with about six minutes remaining in the game. We were able to tie it up and send it to overtime. There is no quit on this Colts squad.”

“This game is behinds us now, learn from it and move on. Get ready for what is next. We are just going to focus on the next game and go to work,” added Perri.

Check out Bob Davies photo gallery of the Knights versus Colts in game one of the high school postseason.

Game two between the Colts and Knights will take place on Thursday, March 24th at the John Rhodes Centre in a 3:30 p.m puck drop.