Northwest Explorers hockey team off to strong start as Ontario Winter Games action returns to Thunder Bay

When it comes to strong starts, the Northwest Explorers hockey team couldn't have asked for much more as they opened play at the 2024 Ontario Winter Games.

The team, which is comprised of players from across northwestern Ontario, began its campaign for gold with a 6-2 win over the Credit River Capitals at the Fort William Gardens on Saturday morning.

"They come out and they compete hard," head coach Ed Atwill said following the win. "They're a creative group, but they also complete really hard."

"So when you combine those two things, and then we get goaltending like we got, it allows the kids to be creative, and if we make some mistakes along the way, well, the goaltender played great to back us up," he said. " So that's a good recipe for the first game."

The Capitals actually outshot the Explorers 33-24; the Explorers, meanwhile, found plenty of success with their power play, going two-for-three with a man advantage.

Owen Trevisanutto and Jace Voortman led the Explorers in goals, scoring two each, while Cooper Disher contributed four assists.

"It's amazing," Voortman said of the win. "We came here this morning, we didn't know what to expect."

"We came out, we played together, and we ended up with the W."

Atwill said there are a "few little things" the team would be addressing before their next game; the Explorers were scheduled to face Ottawa Myers Automotive at 6 p.m.

"There's some new kids to the team that haven't played with each other before, so there's some smaller things to clean up," he said. "But for the most part, we just want to do what we're doing and allow them to use their their skill and talent and see what we can do in a short tournament like this."

Mixed results on the pebbled ice 

Next door, at the Fort William Curling Club, Thunder Bay's Josh Hari and his team dropped their first game 6-3 against the Riley Winters rink in the morning draw.

"It was a really close game, all the way throughout," Hari said. "It came down to the last few rocks."

"We played pretty good, but they just played very, very strong."

Still, Hari, who curls out of Fort William, said the opportunity to play on his home ice "just means so much to me."

"It's very, very special."

Hari's rink ended up losing their three games Saturday and head into Sunday 0-3. 

On the women's side, Claire Dubinsky's team, which plays out of the Kakabeka curling club, opened their schedule with a win, defeating Emma Penston's team 8-2.

However, Dubinsky's team had also fallen behind early in their 4 p.m. game, and were down 1-0 in the third end against the Rachel Stoddart rink. They ended up taking all three of their matches Saturday and head into Sunday's competition 3-0. 

Full results of all events are available on the games website.

Fencers bring their skills to Confederation College 

One of the other sports being played during the games second weekend was fencing, with matches taking place at Confederation College.

In the men's foil competition, Saturday's big winner was Toronto's Connor Tan, who defeated Ottawa's Chenghan Huang 15-4 to take the gold medal.

"It felt great," Tan said. "Last year, I'm pretty sure I lost [in the] first round of elimination, and I knew I could do better."

"It's just a second chance, and I'm really happy that I got first this time."

Rounding out the top three spots in the men's foil competition were Cohen Bernard and Quintin Vollmer, who tied for third.

Alex Khabad, one of two Thunder Bay athletes competing in fencing at the Ontario Winter Games, placed 19th.

In the women's epee competition, Connie Tam of the Mountain Fencing Club took first, defeating Charmaine Wong in the gold medal match, while Elly Stock-Bateman and Xanthe Marchanton, both of Stratford, tied for third.

And in men's saber, Mark Luan of Axis fencing club finished first, with Graeme Wood of Ottawa taking the silver.

Seungdon Lee and Brian Yu tied for third, while Thunder Bay's Christopher Nixon placed fifth.

Competition continues Sunday. A full schedule is available on the games website.