Photos: Northern Exposures Photography
ELLIOT LAKE, Ont. – The Elliot Lake Red Wings saw Silas Crawford tally twice as part of a 6-3 victory over the Hearst Lumberjacks Saturday night in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Centennial Arena.
Striking three and a half minutes into the contest, Elliot Lake’s Sam Noad put a pass out front to an open Evan Dantas, who promptly snapped it past the blocker of Hearst starter Ethan Dinsdale.
The Red Wings then added another at 14:17 as they came out of their own zone in numbers and saw Charlie Wesholowski muscle his way along the right wings boards before sending a pass to the net that was chipped in by Braden Twigg.
It was more from the home side in the second stanza as they tacked on two more to go up by four.
Crawford made it 3-0 at 8:02 as he tipped in a Zachary Vickerman wrister from up top during a man advantage opportunity.
Elliot Lake then connected again a couple of shifts later off a Smith save as they countered quickly and saw Ryan Daponte feed Ethan Mercer on an odd-man rush who lifted his attempt over Dinsdale.
An early man advantage in the third helped Hearst get one back at 1:51 when Tyler Bortkiewicz moved in from the point and went upstairs on Red Wings’ goalkeeper Cameron Smith.
Countering quickly though, the hosts went back up by four less than a minute later courtesy of Crawford’s second of the night as he buried an Adam Matar feed on a two-on-one.
The Lumberjacks’ Riley Klugerman answered with another for his side after that as he spun and fired in his 26th of the campaign, while situated to the right of Smith.
Continuing to press, Hearst added a third as Mason Basaluk scored from the same spot on the ice as Klugerman to make it 5-3 with just over 11 minutes to go.
Regrouping, Elliot Lake helped put the game away when Matar neatly tipped in a Cameron Dial shot from the point during a power play to secure the result.
The win sees the Red Wings improve to 19-34-1-2 while with the loss, the Lumberjacks fall to 40-13-2-0.
“Highlight of the Night” – NOJHL YouTube Channel
