NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Kirkland Lake takes series vs. Iroquois Falls and advance to meet Powassan
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners used the strength of four third period goals to defeat the Iroquois Falls Eskis 8-3 Tuesday evening in the third and deciding game of their Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League East Division quarter-final series at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
That means Kirkland Lake wins the best-of-three set 2-1 and will now move on to meet the No. 1 seeded Powassan Voodoos in a best-of-seven East Division semifinal, which will get underway later this week.
The Gold Miners picked up the lone tally of the opening frame as T.J. Oricchio beat Eskis’ starter Trevor Hawkes at 13:53.
William Mizuik’s first of the postseason put the home side up by two at 5:14 of the second stanza.
The Gold Miners then upped their cushion midway through the contest with Ashton Amaya going top shelf.
Kirkland Lake continued to press and used some solid cycle work in the Eskis end and they were rewarded after Alex Storjohann snapped one past Hawkes from the slot to spell the end of the Iroquois Falls netminder’s night in favour of Ty Sparling at 11:30.
Picking up a power play a half minute later, Iroquois Falls got on the board at 12:54 after Wade Auger knocked the puck out of mid-air, and in, off a Jack Speer point blast.
Back and forth action continued the remainder of the period with each team have a number of quality chances only to be denied.
The Eskis came out flying to begin the third as they struck twice before the period was three minutes old as Shadow Reuben and Samuel Vigneux scored 33 seconds apart.
Gold Miners’ captain Amaya brought his club back to life however at 7:44 as he finished off a power play chance to make it 5-3.
Kirkland Lake tacked on another a couple minutes later as Storjohann opted to shoot from the right side on a three on one and wired his attempt under the blocker of Sparling to regain control of the contest.
They kept coming and notched another as Matthew Brassard lifted a backhand over top of the Iroquois Falls goalkeeper two shifts later.
Storjohann then finished off a hat trick in the late going as he converted during a man advantage at with 1:25 to go to round out the night’s scoring.
Along with the three-tally night, Storjohann also dished out two assists while teammate Tyler Fyfe supplied three helpers in the triumph.
Ridge Gerads made 28 stops to record the win for the Gold Miners.
Hawkes suffered the season-ending setback for the Eskis allowing four against on 18 attempts while Sparling stopped 15 of 19 in relief.
All NOJHL playoff games are streamed online live at HockeyTV.com.
East Division
No. 4 Kirkland Lake Gold Miners vs. No. 5 Iroquois Falls Eskis
Kirkland Lake wins best-of-three series 2-1
Game 1: Kirkland Lake 4 Iroquois Falls 0
Game 2: Iroquois Falls 4 Kirkland Lake 3 (2 OT)
Game 3: Kirkland Lake 8 Iroquois Falls 3
