Cochrane cools off French River

COCHRANE, Ont. – The Cochrane Crunch used tallies from five different skaters to win their third Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League game in a row Friday as they defeated the visiting French River Rapids 5-3 at Tim Horton Event Centre.

A strong start for the home side saw the Crunch jump out to an early 2-0 lead on markers by Thomas Hernandez and Alex Brisson.

French River got one of those back midway through the first period when Christian Gaudreau collected his sixth goal of the season.

Action in the middle stanza saw Cochrane connect 15 seconds into the frame on Kyle Herbster’s seventh of the campaign before Eli Hernandez secured his initial NOJHL effort at 13:15 to put the Crunch up 4-1 after 40 minutes.

Levi Siau got one back for the Rapids early in the third only to see Clay Ellerbrock score for the first time in league play halfway through the period.

Siau’s second of the night and eighth overall pulled French River closer as they converted on the power play at 12:04, but it turned out to be the final offensive effort of the evening.

Austin Whelan dished out two assists for Cochrane in the victory.

The Crunch held the edge in shots on goal, by a 45-23 margin with Taylor Unruh picking up the win while Spencer Eschyshcyn suffered the loss.