Home teams pick up pair of wins and a tie Saturday

NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

NOJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA RELEASE

Release Date: Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012

Home teams pick up pair of wins and a tie Saturday

SUDBURY, Ont. – It was a good night for the home teams in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Saturday with two of them skating away with victories while the other settled for a hard-fought draw.

NORTH BAY TRAPPERS 3 BLIND RIVER BEAVERS 3 (2OT) – A Cray Roberge goal early in the third period helped Blind River rally for the double overtime tie at home vs. North Bay.

Duane Wainman, on the power play, and Samuel Blanchet staked the visiting Trappers to an early 2-0 lead only to see Brandon Bazinet cut the deficit in half before the opening period was out.

Corey McEwen then struck with a man advantage marker 1:51 into the middle frame to level the proceedings for Blind River.

A Cole Klippenstein blast late in the stanza made it a 3-2 game after 40 minutes only to see Roberge notch the equalizer at 2:11 of the third period.

Neither Greg Dodds in the North Bay net or Beavers netminder Brandon Currie would allow any more pucks to get past them the rest of the game, including the two five-minute OT sessions solved nothing.

Shots on goal favoured the home side by a 56-37 margin.

The tie helped keep the Trappers in a tie for first place in the NOJHL standings as their record went to 8-1-2-1 while Blind River went to 3-7-1-1.

SOO THUNDERBIRDS 6 ELLIOT LAKE BOBCATS 2 – A two-goal, one assist performance by Soo captain Greg Sartoretto moved the Thunderbirds into a share of top spot as they doubled up the Bobcats at Essar Centre.

Adam Ritchie also provided a three-point night for the defending league champions as he scored once and dished out a pair of helpers.

The Soo grabbed a 3-1 lead after the opening stanza thanks to tallies by Sartoretto, Anthony Butorac and Darcy Casola with Steve Gaul countering for Elliot Lake.

Action in middle session saw the Bobcats storm back to knot the score at 3-3 courtesy of tallies by Brad Hollman and Nicholas Tassone.

It was all T-Birds in the third however as three goals in a five-minute span put one in the win column for the Soo.

Finding the back of the net in the period were Sartoretto, Tyler Jones and Ritchie.

Steve Dombrowsky picked up the victory making 22 stops for the Soo who fired 39 shots on Elliot Lake netminder Thomas Graham.

With the triumph the Thunderbirds now have 18 points on the season and move into a first place tie with North Bay with a 9-1-1-1 record. The first-year Bobcats meanwhile are now 3-10.

ABITIBI ESKIMOS 6 KIRKLAND LAKE GOLD MINERS 2 – Abitibi put in a strong performance on home ice as they salvaged a weekend split of a home-and-home with the Gold Miners skating to the four-goal victory.|

Aaron Kerr and Richard Therrien both tallied twice for the Eskies with Kevin Walker and Philip Sweeny providing singles.

Zach Innes and Dustin Jesseau chipped in with a pair of assists apiece to pace Abitibi’s offensive cause.

Scoring for Kirkland Lake were Jordan Briand and Matt Schwehr.

Etienne Roy turned in a solid 36-save effort to record the win in net for the Eskimos while Chris Komma faced 47 shots in a losing cause.

The triumph raised Abitibi’s record to 3-7 as Kirkland Lake slipped to 6-5-0-1.

NOJHL action continues Sunday as Thunderbirds welcome the Trappers to Essar Centre in a first place showdown, which gets underway at 3 p.m.