NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA RELEASE
Release Date: Friday, Oct. 12, 2012
Blind River, Kirkland Lake and North Bay Friday winners
SUDBURY, Ont. – Three games on the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League slate Friday featured victories by the Blind River Beavers, Kirkland Lake Gold Miners and North Bay Trappers.
BLIND RIVER BEAVERS 5 SOO THUNDERBIRDS 4 (OT) – Corey McEwen scored with 59 seconds remaining in the first overtime as the Beavers surprised Sault Ste. Marie at John Rhodes Community Centre.
Zach Pease opened the scoring for Blind River only to see Josh Borgen level the proceedings with a power play marker a minute and a half later.
Second period strikes by Myckauly Melanson, Scott Marshall and Paul Muio made it 4-1 for the visitors only to see the Soo’s Greg Sartoretto and Derek Battigan, with one second remaining in the session, make it a one-goal game after 40 minutes.
Brandon Warmington then forced extra time for the Thunderbirds as he beat Beavers’ netminder Aaron Cormier with 2:05 remaining in regulation.
That set the stage for McEwen’s OT game-winner as Blind River pulled off the upset.
Shots on goal favoured the Beavers by a 35-26 margin with Cormier picking up the win and Joel Horodziejczyk suffering the OT setback.
KIRKLAND LAKE GOLD MINERS 4 ABITIBI ESKIMOS 2 – Connor McNally tallied twice and set-up another to help the Gold Miners double up the Eskimos.
Each side had a goal apiece in the opening stanza with Dustin Jesseau scoring for Abitibi while Ethan Strong countered for Kirkland Lake.
McNally then put the Miners ahead 7:42 into the second before feeding Kyle Bishop for the eventual game-winner seven and a half minutes later.
Eric Martineau brought the Eskies to within one with 7:01 to go, but McNally netted some insurance before the contest’s conclusion with an unassisted man advantage effort to round out the scoring.
Chris Komma kicked out 23 of 25 attempts he faced to record the victory with Marc Audet seeing 38 pucks fired his way in a losing cause.
NORTH BAY TRAPPERS 7 ELLIOT LAKE BOBCATS 4 – North Bay got a hat-trick from Trevor Hunt and four assists courtesy of Graham Pickard as North Bay moved into soled possession of first place in the NOJHL standings by virtue of the road win over the Bobcats.
The two sides both tallied twice in the first period with Samuel Blanchet and Duane Wainman scoring for the Trappers and Nicholas Tassone and Dustin Cordeiro replying for Elliot Lake.
It was the Trappers who took control of the contest in the middle frame erupting for four unanswered goals.
Hunt tacked on two of them while Joel Echelmier and Corbin Bean supplied singles.
The Bobcats made a game of it in the third thanks to goals by Corey Giffel and John Follmer only to see Hunt finish off his three-goal night with a power play effort late in the third to seal the victory.
Dustin Hummel started and played two periods to earn the win for North Bay as he made 18 saves. Greg Dodds stopped eight of 10 attempts he faced in playing the final session.
Cory Simic saw 40 minutes of action and suffered the loss finishing with 28 stops. Thomas Graham played the third period for Elliot Lake and turned aside eight of 10 pucks fired his way.
NOJHL action resumes Saturday as North Bay heads to Blind River while the Soo entertains the Bobcats and the Eskimos and Gold Miners finish off their weekend home-and-home at Jus Jordan Arena in Iroquois Falls.