NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA RELEASE
Release Date: Friday, Feb. 1, 2013
Friday winners include Elliot Lake, North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie
SUDBURY – A trio of tilts in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Friday evening saw Elliot Lake, North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie all skate to victories.
ELLIOT LAKE BOBCATS 6 SUDBURY NICKEL BARONS 3 – The Bobcats won for a second straight time, in the win over third place Sudbury, two nights after a victory over league-leading Sault Ste. Marie.
A two-goal opening stanza helped Elliot Lake get on their way courtesy of markers by Brad Holman and Henry Berger.
They then took a 4-1 lead after two periods of play as they managed tallies from Brian Henessey and Holman’s second of the evening, which were sandwiched around a Sebastien Leroux power play effort for the Nickel Barons.
Midway through the third Steve Gaul extended the Bobcats’ cushion before Bradley Bell and Brett Dusick pulled Sudbury to within two.
Henessey however iced it in the final minute to round out the evening’s scoring as he capped off a four-point night giving him 12 points in just eight games in an Elliot Lake uniform.
Cory Simic was solid finishing up with 38 stops to pick up the win for the Bobcats who raised their record to 10-24-0-2.
Michael Muzyka faced 41 shots in a losing cause for the Nickel Barons who dipped to 23-13 on the season.
NORTH BAY TRAPPERS 3 KIRKLAND LAKE GOLD MINERS 1 – The visiting Trappers jumped out to an early lead and rode the stand out goaltending of Greg Dodds the rest of the way as North Bay skated to the 3-1 victory at Kirkland Lake.
Dodds turned aside 30 of the 31 shots he faced to register his league-leading 20th win of the season helping his side improve 24-6-3-3 overall.
North Bay stormed out of the gate striking three times in just under a 10-minute span to take quick control.
Brennen Dubchak lit the lamp 4:13 into the contest netting his team-best 17 tally of the season to open the scoring.
Trevor Hunt’s 15th goal of the campaign midway through the opening stanza put the Trappers up a pair before Justin Schneeberger notched another to put them up 3-0 after 20 minutes.
The lone puck to beat Dodds on the night came off the stick of Gold Miners’ forward Jeremy Picard-Fiset half-way through the contest as he scored for the sixth time in 2012-13 while also extending a consecutive game point streak to five.
Chris Komma faced 21 shots in a losing cause for Kirkland Lake, who saw a four-game winning streak come to an end, as they fell to 20-16-2-1.
SOO THUNDERBIRDS 7 ABITIBI ESKIMOS 1 – The first place Thunderbirds stayed on top by virtue of their neutral site triumph over the Eskimos in front of a large crowd at the Archie Dillon Sports Complex in Timmins.
Sault Ste. Marie was quick to strike as A.J. Kapchek connected 30 seconds into the contest.
A man advantage marker by Brandon Warmington made it 2-0 seven minutes later before Ryan Tront put Abitibi on the board at 10:44.
The Soo regained the two-goal cushion before the session was out thanks to Dallas McLaughlin in the late going.
Two more tallies in the middle frame put the Thunderbirds nicely in front as Yan Kalashnikov and Warmington, once again, found the back of the net.
They finished the romp in the third rounding out their offensive outburst with Anthony Miller and Nicolas Pastorious getting into act.
Miller and David Radke both chipped in with two assists to help boost the T-Birds.
Joel Horodziejczyk faced 29 shots to pick up the win while starter Jackson Winkler saw 39 pucks fired his way in defeat and Jeremy Laux stopped 10 of 12 in nearly 15 minutes of relief.
With the victory the T-Birds jumped to 25-7-3-3 while the Eskies, with the setback, dropped to 12-19-0-2.
League play continues Saturday on two fronts with Sault Ste. Marie at Blind River and Abitibi at home to Sudbury. Both contests get underway at 7:30 p.m.
