SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – The Cochrane Crunch capped off a week-long road trip in style by rallying for four unanswered third period tallies to pull out a significant 6-4 come from behind victory over the Soo Thunderbirds Sunday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at John Rhodes Community Centre.
Each side would connect once in the latter stages of the first frame as Ethan Emanuel scored for the Crunch on the power play at 16:35 before Nolan Ford countered for Sault Ste. Marie just 76 seconds later.
The Thunderbirds would then take the lead early in the middle frame on an Avery Rebek effort only too see the back and forth match-up have Nicolas Flanders knot the affair for the visitors at 5:22.
Going to the man advantage, the Soo regained the lead three minutes later on Tanner Mayne’s first of the season.
They then tacked one another while up a skater a few shifts later as Steven Bellini picked up his fourth at 10:38 to give a home side a 4-2 cushion after two periods of play.
Storming back in the third, Cochrane started their comeback with Flanders’ second of the day at 2:31, which came via the power play.
The Crunch then struck twice in a 31-second outburst to first knot the affair off the stick of Hunter Buzzi before Austin Whelan provided the eventual game-winner with 7:26 remaining in regulation.
Zach Hayes then finished off the comeback with an empty netter in the final moments to cap off a four-point day as he also added a trio of earlier assists.
Shaun Simpson meanwhile added two helpers of his own to aid the Cochrane offensive cause.
Zach Wickson made 27 saves to record the win for the Crunch as the 2019 Dudley-Hewitt Cup hosts raised their overall record to 7-7-0-1.
William Anderson faced 37 shots in defeat for the Soo who fell to 10-3-0-0 on the year
Game Photos courtesy of Rod Aubertin – SSM Photos
