NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013
Home teams win convincingly Sunday
SUDBURY – It was all home teams in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action Sunday as the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners, Soo Thunderbirds and Espanola Rivermen all skated to impressive victories.
KIRKLAND LAKE GOLD MINERS 6 ABITIBI ESKIMOS 3 – The Gold Miners skated out to an early three-goal lead and never trailed en route to the home win over visiting Abitibi.
Mathieu Lecompte, Dan Morin and Austin Rust put Kirkland Lake up 3-0 by the midway mark of the opening session and held off the Eskimos from there.
Abitibi got on the board 4:48 into the middle stanza thanks to Eric Robichaud only to see Kyle Bishop answer back for the Miners a minute later.
The Eskimos did get another, moments later, from Ryan Wildman to make it a 4-2 contest after 40 minutes.
Kirkland Lake put the contest away in the third sandwiching efforts by Steven Babin and Everett Thompson around one by Abitibi’s Robichaud to conclude the night’s scoring.
Rust and Babin also picked up two assists each allowing the latter to extend a point streak to nine games.
Shots on goal favoured the Gold Miners 38-20 with Kenny Fitzgerald picking up the win and Sylvain Miron the loss.
Kirkland Lake improved to 8-1 on the year while the Eskimos went to 3-4-0-2.
SOO THUNDERBIRDS 8 NORTH BAY TRAPPERS 0 – The surging Thunderbirds got goals from eight different skaters and Joel Horodziejczyk posted the shutout in the romp over visiting North Bay.
Owen Headrick, Eric Hillock, Joey Miller, Matthew Mitchell, Nicholas Tassone, Riley Bordin, Grant Syrette and Brandon Grandinetti all tallied for the T-Birds while multiple players also having two assist days.
Horodziejczyk only had to make 10 saves in picking up his first shutout of the season.
Dustin Hummel started for the Trappers and allowed six goals on 45 shots before giving way to Evan Cormier who turned aside eight of 10 in 14 minutes of relief.
With the victory Sault Ste. Marie won for the fourth straight time as well as the ninth game in 10 outings improving to 9-2 overall.
North Bay slipped to 4-7-0-2 with the setback.
ESPANOLA RIVERMEN 8 BLIND RIVER BEAVERS 1 — The Rivermen broke open a 1-1 game in the second period as they rolled to the triumph over Blind River.
Special teams played a big part in the contest with Espanola connecting for five power play markers overall.
Andrew Plomer and Corbin bean both tallied twice for the Rivermen while Robert Smythe, Patrick Morgan, Ryan Attwood and Brennen Dubchak added singles.
For Dubchak, his effort marked the eighth consecutive game that he has scored at least one goal.
Tyson MacLeod had the lone tally for the Beavers.
Alex Chandler made 19 saves to pick-up the win in net helping his side raise their record to 8-3 on the season.
Matt Young faced 29 shots in defeat for Blind River as they dropped their sixth game in a row while falling to 3-8 overall.
Next up on the league docket has Sudbury at home to Kirkland Lake Wednesday in a 7:30 p.m. start at McClelland Arena.
