Fifty years of major Junior hockey kicked off with the Kingston Frontenacs (1-0-0-0) opening their 2022-23 OHL season at Leon’s Centre on Friday night with a 3-1 win versus the Erie Otters (0-1-0-1). The Western Conference visitors, making their first appearance in the Limestone City since Jan 2020, entered the game coming off their season opening Thursday night shootout loss in Peterborough.
Jackson Stewart scored the opener with Paul Hughes adding the game winning goal to keep the Fronts ahead in close game with a Linus Hemström empty netter sealing the 3-1 score.
After one start in preseason, Colorado Avalanche prospect Ivan Zhigalov made his first regular season start for Kingston in goal facing his first OHL shot 1:39 into the game. The 2022 import pick made 31 saves facing 32 visiting shots. The Otters replied with Marshall Nicholls making his second start of the season.
The Game
The Otters came out hot firing 13 shots on the Fronts net. However, it was 1-0 Kingston when Jackson Stewart (1) opened the Fronts season scoring with a nice shot from the faceoff circle beating Nicholls off the post and in. The go-ahead bar-ringer was assisted by at Jacob Battaglia who sprung Stewart through the neutral zone, and Gabriel Frasca, who each earned their first OHL points at 7:47.
Zhigalov was called upon to make three tough saves in succession including a nice glove snare off a Cameron Morton shot to keep the Fronts a goal ahead midway through the frame and played solid throughout his first OHL game after a year in the QMJHL.
Stewart was also making his presence clear on a couple of big hits with a stunner on Carey Terrance in the Otters zone. Braden Hache, rookie Maleek McGowan, and Thomas Budnick all continued to put physical presence on the opponent. Hache and Otters captain Cameron Morton dropped the gloves with 80 seconds left in the period in a spirited bout that had the building’s energy rise as the game grew more physical by the minute.
With 47 seconds left, the Otters sent the teams squared up 1-1 heading to first intermission on a Sam Alfano (1) goal with the visitors taking 1:30 of powerplay time to the second on a late first period Fronts penalty.
After an early call on Kingston starting the second frame, Kingston’s penalty killers did a great job defending a two-man advantage not allowing a shot on Zhigalov. The Otters continued to press taking a 15-6 shot lead at the halfway mark of the game.
McGowan continued playing a physical game with another solid check on Erie’s Owain Johnston as the Fronts started to even out the shot clock and settle in with a 10-5 advantage in second period chances tightening the Erie shot lead to 18-13. A close chance by in front of Nicholls looking for a second Kingston lead was jinxed by a bouncing puck on a Battaglia pass that couldn’t make it to an open Frasca looking to bang it home.
In the final period, Zhigalov made another beauty save with ten minutes left with a quick reflex stop on Taeo Artichuk as Erie again started to pressure with five consecutive shots before the Fronts halted the momentum with another strike. “Ziggy was great, he made a lot of nice saves especially in the second period”, said Fronts forward Paul Hughes.
Paul Hughes (1) gave Kingston its second lead taking advantage of a deflected shot originally taken by Matthew Soto. The 2-1 goal at 10:50 was also assisted by Chris Thibodeau with rookie import selection Linus Hemström (1) collecting his first OHL goal into an empty net to seal the 3-1 win and match last the 2022 season opener with a win. “Soto was good on the forecheck there, “described teammate Paul Hughes”, and got a turnover and took it to the net and we got a good bounce off the dman and I was able to bury it. “
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