Credit to Timmins Daily Press

A “selfish” penalty late in the third period ruined a valiant effort by an under-manned Timmins Majors squad and handed the Kapuskasing Flyers a 2-1 victory at the McIntyre Arena Tuesday night.

With the Great North Midget League game deadlocked at 1-1, Majors forward Austin Holmes took a costly kneeing penalty just inside the Flyers’ blue-line with 3:22 remaining in the third period.

Mathieu Parent deflected a point shot past Majors goalie Dylan Dallaire 1:20 later for what would prove to be the game-winning marker, his fourth goal of the season.

Majors coach Brandon Perry felt his squad was deserving of a better fate.

“I couldn’t ask anything more of those guys,” he said.

“We were down to 10 guys, two lines. We were missing Riley Robitaille and we were missing Garrett Gelinas and we had to call up a guy (forward Tyson Gardner).

“Then, some guys just took selfish penalties. They ended up in the box and put our guys down by even more.

“At the end of the day a selfish, selfish, selfish penalty killed us.”

In addition to Robitaille and Gelinas, the Majors were without veteran defenceman Cameron Svec.

The Majors only took one minor penalty during the first period, but they were assessed seven of the eight minor penalties called during the second period and Holmes was handed a 10-minute misconduct, as well.

And three times in the period the Flyers were presented with five-on-three power-play opportunities — although one of them lasted just a couple of seconds.

During one of those opportunities, Flyers captain Jacob Comeau scored his fifth goal of the season to put the visitors in front 1-0 at the 13:35 mark of the middle frame.

“You can’t win games if you are in the penalty box,” Perry said.

“Our penalty killers did a hell of a job tonight and Dylan Dallaire stood on his head. We got a solid performance from him.

“He has been absolutely awesome all season. He played really well in our two wins and he was great again tonight.”

Comeau’s goal stood up until the 11:35 mark of the third period when Majors forward Kobe Barrette scored his first goal of the season to deadlock the game at 1-1.

Barrette’s goal spoiled the shutout bid of Flyers goalie Sebastien Plamondon, a Timmins native.

Following Parent’s game-winning goal, the Majors pulled Dallaire in favour of an extra attacker, but Plamondon stood tall in the visitors’ net — turning aside a pair of excellent scoring opportunities in the final minute of the contest.

“We were playing desperate hockey,” Perry said.

“We had to pull the goalie and throw everything at them. You have to tip your hat to them. Their goaltender played a good hockey game, but we beat ourselves. We had guys putting themselves ahead of the team and it killed us at the end.”

Despite the heartbreaking loss, there were some positives on the Majors’ side of the ledger.

“We had some good looks, some good chances,” Perry said.

“We missed a couple of empty-netters. If those had gone in, it would have been a different hockey game. We deserved better tonight.”

Flyers coach Glen Denney was happy to see his squad skate off with the two points.

“I thought our back end did a really good job of dealing with their pressure tonight,” he said.

“On the goal they got, one of our guys got a little bit stressed out, but our D have done a great job all year.

“It’s our wingers who have to make those plays. The puck is getting on their sticks, they just have to move their feet a little bit.

“When we tend to manage the puck pretty well, we play some good hockey.”

Denney was also pleased with the play of Plamondon in the Flyers’ net.

“This is Sebastien’s sixth game with us now and his goals against average is 1.95,” he said.

“Every time he is in the net, he gives us a chance to win. Even the goal they got on him tonight was a shot that went off the post and in.

“With him in the net, we have confidence we can make mistakes and our defencemen play that much better. He has been phenomenal.”

The Flyers weathered a bit of a storm for about four or five minutes after the Majors netted their tying goal.

“We have to learn to relax, even when we are playing with a lead,” Denney said.

“There is no point in just dumping the puck in if we can’t forecheck. Bring it back and start over. It is a lot easier to sit there and play with the puck than without it.

“Once they tied it up, they started to apply some pressure and all of sudden we started to throw the puck away and that’s not what we do.

“Our team doesn’t defend that well, to be honest, but we handle the puck very well and as long as our kids can learn to relax and move the puck, we will be a successful hockey team this year.”

A number of Flyers impressed their coach Thursday night.

“I thought (Sylvain) Gravel was very good on the back end tonight,” Denney said.

“I thought Parent, who scored the game-winning goal, had a good game, as well. He made a lot of little plays.

“Those two guys deserve a great deal of credit for how they played.”

Denney also had some kind words for the Majors and pride the team is restoring this season.

“I have a lot of respect for this organization and its coaching staff,” he said.

“Not just the on-ice product, but the attitude of what they are trying to accomplish. I think it is good for the league, as whole, if all of our teams have good organizations and good staffs.

“They have done a phenomenal job early on and I hope they continue to succeed.”

Plamondon went the distance in goal for the Flyers to record the victory, while Dallaire was tagged with the loss for the Majors.

With the win, the Flyers — who hold down third place in the GNML’s Major Midget Division — improve to 3-2-1-0 on the season, while the fifth-place Majors fall to 2-4-0-0.

The Majors will return to action on Friday night when they host the fourth-place North Bay Trappers (2-0-0-1) at the McIntyre Arena. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.