COCHRANE, Ont. – The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners withstood a pair of Cochrane Crunch comeback bids before eventually prevailing 7-4 Saturday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contest at Tim Horton Events Centre.
Kirkland Lake struck first on the night as Camille Marcoux corralled a loose puck in the neutral zone, then proceeded to skate into Cochrane territory, where he fired a shot that got through Crunch starter Ben DeGiallonardo at 5:46.
The visiting Gold Miners extended their lead at 12:31 as Niklas Albrecht collected an initial attempt that was blocked, then proceeded to wire one in from the high slot.
Adding another just as a man advantage had expired, the guests tacked on another with Chance DeBolt redirecting a Lucas Rezoni effort while parked in front of the net.
Battling back in the second period, Cochrane tallied twice before the session was five minutes old.
Matteo Peca put the home side on the board at 3:20 as he benefitted from a Kirkland Lake turnover and put in 10th of the season.
Getting another a minute and a half later, Sebastien Ouimet made it 3-2 as he banged in the rebound off a Martin Papineau chance put on net.
However, the Gold Miners countered on the next shift with Luciano Supino also reaching the 10-tally plateau as he knocked in a Marcoux effort that came off the end boards and out the other side, which he promptly buried.
They then added one late in the session to go up 5-2 heading to the second intermission thanks to Spencer Jones one-timing a blast from the right point with the clubs skating four aside.
In the third, Cochrane came back again early in a stanza with goals in rapid succession to move to within one once more.
Jake Alton picked the first one by lifting one high over the glove of Keaton Lyons in the Gold Miners’ net before Alex Dionne connected 35 seconds later by whipping in a Ouimet back pass from the top of the crease.
Picking up some insurance deep into the match-up, Kirkland Lake’s Ryan Evenhuis came down the right wing before moving to the middle and ripping a shot over the glove of DeGiallonardo.
Alex McDonald then capped off the road victory by jamming in a loose puck put on net by teammate Christian Genova.
Kirkland Lake’s Lyons made 20 saves to record the win while DeGiallonardo had 53 shots put his way in a losing cause.
