NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA RELEASE
Release Date: Friday, Jan. 18, 2013
Trappers and Gold Miners victorious Friday
SUDBURY – Game action in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Friday saw the North Bay Trappers blank the Elliot Lake Bobcats while the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners needed overtime to slip past the Abitibi Eskimos.
NORTH BAY TRAPPERS 6 ELLIOT LAKE BOBCATS 0 – At Elliot Lake, the Trappers got two tallies apiece from Devan Turcotte and Corbin Bean and rode the shutout goaltending of Greg Dodds to move back into a share of top spot in the NOJHL standings with the Soo Thunderbirds.
Turcotte notched both his markers in the opening frame to put the visitors up a pair after 20 minutes.
North Bay doubled their cushion in the middle stanza thanks to efforts from Bean and Andrew Martin.
They then put the game away in the third with Stephen Langford and Bean, on the power play in the final minute, doing the damage.
Brandon Janke dished out three assists to aid the Trappers offensive cause.
Dodds turned aside all 16 shots he faced to register his second shutout and league-leading 17th win of the season.
North Bay also improved to 21-5-3-3 with the victory.
The Bobcats fell to 8-21-0-1 with the loss in a game that saw Cory Simic face 40 shots in net.
KIRKLAND LAKE GOLD MINERS 5 ABITIBI ESKIMOS 4 (OT) – A Tanner Lafrance goal 1:58 into OT was the difference as Kirkland Lake put an end to a four-game losing drought while also securing their first win of 2013.
Following a scoreless opening period each team had a goal in the second thanks to Zach Innes of the Eskimos and a man advantage effort by the Gold Miners’ Ethan Strong.
An offensively-charged final stanza saw the two sides strike three times each to set the stage for extra time to determine a winner.
After goals by Kyle Bishop and Jean-Francois Silvestre put Kirkland Lake up a pair, Abitibi answered right back on tallies by Aaron Kerr and Nick Fountain to level the proceedings with 9:01 to go.
Jean-Michel Naud then put the Gold Miners back on top at 14:15 only to see Ryan Wildman force OT and he buried the equalizer with just over a minute and a half to go in regulation.
That set the stage for Lafrance to slam home the game-winner helping his side get back into the win column for the first time since Dec. 21.
Marc Audet saw 18 shots in picking up the victory as Kirkland Lake improved to 17-15-2-1 on the campaign.
Jeremy Laux made 34 stops to get his club a point in the contest as they slipped to 11-17-0-2 overall.
NOJHL play resumes on three fronts Saturday including the Gold Miners and Eskimos finishing off a home-and-home at Jus Jordan Arena in Iroquois Falls.
Also on tap Saturday features Blind River at home to Elliot Lake while the Soo Thunderbirds hosts North Bay in another first place showdown at Essar Centre.
All three games have 7:30 p.m. face-offs.
