NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Friday, Nov. 29, 2013
Gold Miners outlast Nickel Barons comeback bid
KIRKLAND LAKE – The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners built up a big lead midway through the game then withstood a furious comeback attempt by the visiting Sudbury Nickel Barons to pull out a 7-5 victory Friday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
Jeremy Picard-Fiset, the NOJHL’s leading point producer amongst league defencemen, had a big night for the home side scoring once and adding three assists to pace his side offensively.
Kyle Bishop also had a big night notching a hat-trick while Samuel Wilbur and Steven Babin also had three-point nights for the winning side.
Babin opened the scoring 4:33 into the contest before Bishop tacked on two of his tallies before the session was out.
The Gold Miners extended their cushion to 5-0 before the midway point of the game thanks to Wilbur and a power play effort by Austin Rust.
Sudbury used the power play to get on the board at 13:12 of the second to make it 5-1 after 40 minutes.
After a Justin Bell power play effort made it 5-2 at 4:23, Bishop capped off his hat-trick 57 seconds later to restore the Miners cushion.
Picard-Fiset then connected on the power play making it 7-2 and outing the home side seeming in control.
A persistent Sudbury side battled back on goals by Giovanni Foschia, Jimmy Roy and Guillaume Rheault to make it interesting, but time would run out to dash the Nickel Barons comeback hopes.
Recently acquired Jeremy Pominville made 19 stops in his debut for the Gold Miners while Andrew Lefebvre faced 29 shots in a losing cause for Sudbury.
With the victory Kirkland Lake improved to 21-3-0-2 on the season to move two points behind league-leading Sault Ste. Marie in the standings while also holding two games in hand.
Sudbury slipped to 7-15-0-4 with the setback.
NOJHL play continues Saturday with a trio of 7:30 p.m. tilts as the Nickel Barons travel to Iroquois Falls to take on Abitibi, the Thunderbirds are in Elliot Lake and Blind River hosts North Bay.
