NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016
Hometown Crunch off to Polar Bear Classic title game after semifinal win vs. Eskis
COCHRANE, Ont. – Rory Milne tallied twice and helped set-up another to help propel the Cochrane Crunch past the Iroquois Falls Eskis 7-1 Sunday afternoon in semifinal action of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Polar Bear Classic preseason tournament at the Tim Horton Event Centre.
The Crunch will now take on the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Kingston Voyageurs in the PBC championship game Sunday evening at 7 p.m.
Less than 12 hours after wrapping up round robin play in the early morning hours Sunday, Cochrane began the scoring 13 minutes into the contest when Taylor Armbruster let loose a blast from the right point that beat Eskis starter Trevor Hawkes.
Milne made it 2-0 for the home side late in the first as he jammed home a loose puck after a rush that saw the Crunch break out of their own zone.
A nice give-and-go allowed Cochrane to make it 3-0 early in the second and just into a man advantage opportunity as Cooper Schroder saucered a cross-ice pass to Milne who backhanded his chance over the pad of Hawkes.
Looking to change the momentum, Iroquois Falls opted to switch their netminders after that as Artem Bortovskiy came in to replace Hawkes.
The tournament hosts kept coming however and made it 4-0 six and a half minutes into the middle session when Nathan Curley corralled a rebound off his own shot and snapped it past a sprawled Eskis goalkeeper.
Cochrane added another at 8:50 with Darian Harris chipping one over Bortovskiy with half a game to play.
Action in the final frame saw the Bailey Shaver of the Crunch extend the cushion as he scored from a sharp angle at 14:57.
Nick Flanders picked up one late with just over a minute to play to make it 7-0 before Iroquois Falls dashed Leighton Williams shutout bid with 17 seconds remaining, while on a late power play, courtesy of Alex Mitsionis to round out the afternoon’s scoring.
Seam Emmerson chipped in with two assists to aid the winner’s offensive cause.
Finals shots on goal in the contest favoured the Crunch 51-36.
Polar Bear Classic Schedule/Results
@ Tim Horton Event Centre – Cochrane, Ont.
Thursday, Sept. 1
Iroquois Falls 5 Espanola 4
Kingston (OJHL) 3 Cochrane 2
Friday, Sept. 2
Cochrane 5 Iroquois Falls 4
Kingston (OJHL) 4 Kirkland Lake 2
Iroquois Falls 3 Kirkland Lake 2
Espanola 6 Cochrane 5
Saturday, Sept. 3
Kingston (OJHL) 4 Iroquois Falls 1
Espanola 4 Kirkland Lake 3
Kingston (OJHL) 6 vs. Espanola 3
Cochrane 3 Kirkland Lake 1
Sunday, Sept. 4
Semifinal A: Kingston (OJHL) 5 Espanola 4
Semifinal B: Cochrane 7 Iroquois Falls 1
Final: Cochrane vs. Kingston (OJHL) 7 p.m.
