The Kingston Frontenacs (8-5-0-1) continued a western road trip in Michigan for consecutive nights with a 3-1 win versus the West Division Flint Firebirds (7-7-0-0) on Friday night at Dort Financial Centre to stall a mini two-game slide. First Star Mason Vaccari was spectacular backstopping Kingston with 41 saves for his fourth win. Chris Thibodeau scored his first of the season in the second period, Francesco Arcuri scored a league-leading fourth game-winner in the third, and Paul Hughes added insurance as the Fronts improved their road record to 3-4-0-0.
The clubs hadn’t met since a 6-1 Frontenacs win at Dort Financial Centre in Feb of 2020.
The Frontenacs’ rookie goaltender made consecutive starts for the first time in the season after a solid performance in the 3-2 loss on Thursday night in Saginaw, making his fifth start, saving 40 Firebird shots on 41 total faced. The homeside sent a familiar face in former Ottawa 67’s goalie Will Cranley in his overage season seeing 27 Kingston shots.
For the second straight game, the Frontenacs went to the first intermission scoreless. A late first period powerplay was the only man advantage for either team with Kingston’s top-ranked penalty killers holding off the OHL’s second-highest scoring team in the first twenty minutes with Flint’s powerplay going 0-3 on the night.
Vaccari robbed a Brennen Othmann one-timed blast from the dot while Flint was on the man-advantage after robbing Riley Piercey from in close earlier, on two quality chances for Flint to get a tally. Matthew Soto and Owen Outwater teamed for the best chance for Kingston in the first frame on an odd man rush late, but Cranley replied to Vaccari’s saves keeping the Fronts off the board.
Ottawa Senators prospect Ben Roger took a healthy run at Coulson Pitre in the biggest check of the opening period before the 0-0 game moved to the second. Roger laid another huge check at the blueline on Marko Stojkov early in the second period.
On Flint’s second powerplay early in the second stanza, Alec Belanger made a pair of blocks off hard Firebird shots with Braden Hache making two solid defensive plays helping Vaccari keep the game scoreless with the shots 9-1 for the homeside and 22-10 overall, just over six minutes into the middle frame. Vaccari made another key save with Othmann, the OHL’s second-overall point leader tipping a puck from the crease midway through the game.
With 3:52 left in the second, Chris Thibodeau (1) put Kingston on the board first in consecutive games on his first tally of the year. The 1-0 goal came off a nice finish past Cranley after Soto and Belanger had exchanged passes to get it to an open Thibodeau. The assist by Soto at 16:58 gave him points in three straight games (2G,1A).
Vaccari stopped a two-on-one chance moments after Kingston had taken the lead, on one of 25 shots against through 40 minutes getting the Fronts to the third frame with the one-goal lead on consecutive nights and helping drop the Firebirds to 1-7-0-0 when trailing after forty minutes.
Dallas Stars prospect Francesco Arcuri (11) put Kingston up a pair less than a minute into the third with a nice wrist shot from the top of the circle beating Cranley high. The 2-0 unassisted strike 53 seconds into the period put Arcuri into sole possession of second place in the league’s goal scoring race and gave him his fourth game-winning tally to pace the OHL.
The Firebirds replied less then two minutes later with Coulson Pitre setting up Amadeus Lombardy (6) for a quick break alone on Vaccari and beat the goaltender up high making it 2-1 at 3:47. Piercey had a chance seconds after the tying goal, but Vaccari staved off quick strikes for Flint.
After Thibodeau hit the post, Paul Hughes (4) blasted a shot past Cranley’s glove from short distance to give Kingston a 3-1 lead midway through the final frame. Belanger, who made another huge shot block in the third, earned his second assist of the game with Owen Outwater at 9:31 for the insurance marker.
Vaccari was a wall all game making multiple saves in the last half of the final period with Flint on a 9-1 shot run to help improve the Black and Gold’s record to 4-1-0-0 leading after two periods.
Kingston finishes a five-game road trip in Windsor on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 pm.
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