KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners broke a tie game with two third period tallies to help them skate to a 4-2 victory over the Cochrane Crunch in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League encounter Friday at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
A late first period power play helped Cochrane collect the night’s opening marker as Billy Paschen picked up his fourth of the season as the guests carried a 1-0 edge into the intermission.
The Gold Miners came back to even things up three and a half minutes into the second on a Casey Gerstein effort.
Up a skater later in the session, the Crunch went back on top at 11:36 when Stephen Minichiello notched his eighth of the campaign.
Answering that, Kirkland Lake drew level before the middle frame was complete off the stick of Jaren DeBolt.
Tied into the back half of the third, the Gold Miners got the eventual game-winner, via the power play, as Connor Van Weelie’s sixth put the home side in front with 6:27 to go.
They then picked up some insurance courtesy of Nicholas Wagner a couple of shifts later as he rounded out the scoring in the contest.
Cochrane fired 45 shots on Kirkland Lake goaltender Kyle McNair as his 43-save effort aided in his club’s triumph.
Crunch goalkeeper Cody Levesque faced 33 shots in defeat.
Game Photos courtesy of CapturingTheMoment.ca
