IROQUOIS FALLS, Ont. – Striking shorthanded, at even strength, and on the power play, in a four-and-a-half-minute span in the second period, the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners went on to defeat the Iroquois Falls Storm 6-3 in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play Sunday afternoon at Jus Jordan Arena.
Capitalizing on the day’s first man advantage opportunity, the Storm’s Avery Wease went coast-to-coast as he powered his way into the Gold Miners’ zone along the right side before he cut hard to the net and tucked his chance through the legs of netminder Glen McInnes, 11:26 into the contest.
Coming back to tie it while down a skater eight minutes into the middle stanza, Kirkland Lake’s Isaiah Allen, who turned 17 today, led a two-on-one rush up-ice with Vaive Hickey and finished off a give-and-go by lifting a shot over the glove of Iroquois Falls goalkeeper Virgil Sausset Plateaux.
The visitors then went in front a few shifts later as they broke out with speed in numbers that allowed Owen O’Grady to take a Tysen Anderson feed in the slot and wire it in.
A third in the session then saw the guests click on a man advantage at 12:33 with Noah Kozmick collecting his first NOJHL goal when he skated into the right circle and pumped an attempt to the target that his off the stick of Sausset Plateaux, then bounced high over the netminder and into the net.
Inching closer 32 seconds into the final frame, the Storm forced a turnover deep in Gold Miners territory that led to Mathieu Ouellette stuffing in a rebound off an Alexandre St. Pierre chance.
Going back up by two with 8:42 to go, Hickey whistled one upstairs from a tight angle on the left side.
Kirkland Lake then extended their cushion in the late going when O’Grady pushed a play a ahead and put one into an empty net.
Still battling with another extra attacker, Alex Bedic banged in his fourth of the year as he finished off a cross-ice feed from Simon Lemieux.
However, O’Grady iced it with another empty net effort for his first NOJHL hat trick to wrap-up the scoring.
The win raises the Gold Miners’ record to 8-15-0-2 and with a sixth straight defeat, the Storm dipped to 8-14-0-2.
