NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA RELEASE
Release Date: Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012
Saturday sees Beavers and Eskimos win at home
SUDBURY – The 2012 portion of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League season came to a close Saturday with two games as the Blind River Beavers edged the Soo Thunderbirds 4-3 in double overtime while the Abitibi Eskimos slipped past the Elliot Lake Bobcats 3-2.
BLIND RIVER BEAVERS 4 SOO THUNDERBIRDS 3 (2OT) – A Brandon Bazinet marker with 29 seconds remaining in the second extra five-minute session was the difference as the Beavers put an end to a four-game winless drought.
After Blind River’s Tyler Brown opened the scoring 13:06 into the contest the visiting Thunderbirds answered back 36 seconds later courtesy of Matthew Zalewski to level the proceedings.
Sault Ste. Marie then took the lead before the opening period was complete thanks to Darcy Casola’s 19th goal of the season, which came in the late stages of the stanza.
The Beavers responded in the middle session with a pair of markers of their own in the second compliments of of Paul Muio, via the power play, and Scott Marshall at even strength.
The T-Birds pulled level with another late-period tally as Casola struck shorthanded at 19:04 as he netted his team-best 20th goal of the season to knot things up at 3-3 after 40 minutes.
Neither side would score in either the third or first OT period setting the stage for Bazinet’s late-game heroics.
Aaron Cormier finished up with 26 saves to pick up the win for Blind River who improved to 6-17-2-4 on the campaign.
The Soo picked up a point in the extra session setback in a contest that saw Joel Horodziejczyk peppered with 46 shots in the Thunderbirds net. Their record went to 19-5-3-3 with the result.
ABITIBI ESKIMOS 3 ELLIOT LAKE BOBCATS 2 – In Iroquois Falls the hometown Eskimos got a hat-trick from captain Richard Therrien who netted all three markers for his side as they edged the Bobcats.
Nick Tassone opened the scoring shorthanded for the visitors 5:51 after the opening face-off only to see Therrien notch his first of the night 10 minutes later.
A man advantage marker 5:52 into the middle frame put the Bobcats back on top only to see Therrien respond 18 seconds after that to tie things up.
The Abitibi captain then buried his league-leading 29th goal of the season with 3:20 to go in the second for the game-winner.
Jeremy Laux turned in a 40-save performance to pick up the win with Cory Simic stopping all but three of the 54 shots he faced in a defeat.
With the triumph Abitibi raised their record to 11-16-0-1 while first-year Elliot Lake fell to 7-19-0-2.
The NOJHL now enters its holiday break with game action resuming in the New Year as Blind River visits Kirkland Lake and Elliot Lake entertains Sudbury on Jan. 4.
