NOJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA RELEASE
Release Date: Friday, Nov. 16, 2012
Thunderbirds and Bobcats extend winning streaks
SUDBURY – The Soo Thunderbirds and Elliot Lake Bobcats extended winning streaks with wins in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Friday evening.
SOO THUNDERBIRDS 6 KIRKLAND LAKE GOLD MINERS 2 – Gavin Burbach fired a hat-trick to help Sault Ste. Marie regain sole possession of first place in the NOJHL standings over North Bay with a road triumph over Kirkland Lake.
Burbach opened the scoring nine minutes into the contest with a shorthanded marker that eluded Gold Miners’ starter Chris Komma.
Burbach struck again on special teams notching a power play effort 4:40 into the middle frame to make it 2-0.
The Thunderbirds extended their cushion to three after 40 minutes with A.J. Kapcheck scoring at 16:05.
Connor McNally broke Joel Horodziejczyk’s shutout bid early in the in the third before Anthony Miller and Burbach connected 48 seconds apart to put the Soo up 5-1.
Frances Desforges had Kirkland Lake’s other goal moments later, but Adam Ritchie added another man-down effort in the late going to round out the scoring.
Shots on goal were 25 apiece with Horodziejczyk picking up the win and Komma suffering the loss.
With the victory the T-Birds ran their winning streak to eight while improving to a league-best 15-1-1-2 overall. The Gold Miners slipped to 12-7-0-1.
ELLIOT LAKE BOBCATS 6 BLIND RIVER BEAVERS 5 – A Cooper Lietch goal with 16:17 remaining proved to be the difference as the Bobcats won for a second straight game in the victory over Blind River.
The two sides traded tallies in the opening session with Henry Berger scoring for Elliot Lake and Dean Gordon countering for the Beavers.
Elliot Lake responded with four goals in the second stanza and Blind River finding the back of the net twice.
Steve Gaul, Jared Walker, Nicholas Tassone and Brad Hollman had the tallies for the Bobcats while Corey McEwen and Bazinet replied for the Beavers.
After Lietch’s effort the visitors responded with markers by Tyler Brown and Myckauly Melanson to pull within one, but that’s as close as they would get.
Cory Simic faced 42 shots to pick up the win in net for Elliot Lake with Aaron Cormier suffering the setback following just over 32 minutes in relief of starter Brandon Currie. The Blind River stoppers saw a combined 47 pucks in defeat.
The first-year Bobcats ran their record to 5-13-0-1 with the victory and the Beavers fell to 4-11-1-3 in the loss.
NOJHL action resumes Saturday the Thunderbirds in Iroquois Falls to meet the Abitibi Eskimos while Blind River heads home to host Sudbury. Both contests get underway at 7:30 p.m.
