ESPANOLA, Ont. – Nick Grandy tallied twice to help the Cochrane Crunch defeat the Elliot Lake Wildcats 4-1 Sunday as the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League exhibition slate came to a close with a neutral site affair held at the Espanola Regional Recreation Complex.
After a scoreless first period, Grandy opened the scoring for Cochrane a couple minutes into the middle stanza.
Jacob Seyers supplied the eventual game-winner at 14:45 before Matthew Minichiello put the Crunch up by three a few shifts later as they took a three-goal cushion after 40 minutes.
Elliot Lake got on the board 50 seconds into the third, thanks to Connor Taylor, who got help from Owen Kruse and Jackson Grozelle.
In the third, Grandy then added some insurance with a power play marker with 6:01 to go as his second of the contest rounded out the scoring.
Stephen Minich dished out a pair of to aid the Cochrane cause.
Shots on goal favoured the winners by a 61-28 margin with Carson Boutin recording the victory.
Wildcats’ netminders Dominic Boily and Parker Simpson split duties between the pipes for their side.
All 12 league clubs will now gear up for the start of the 2019-20 regular season, which gets underway Thursday on two fronts as Cochrane hosts the French River Rapids while the Powassan Voodoos pay a visit to the Rayside-Balfour Canadians in a pair of 7 p.m. starts.
All NOJHL games will be streamed live on HockeyTV.com.