Photos: Northern Exposures
ELLIOT LAKE, Ont. – The Elliot Lake Red Wings saw Tomas Palandra register his first two Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League goals Saturday, helping his side defeat the Cochrane Crunch 6-2 late Saturday afternoon at Centennial Arena.
Getting the day’s opening tally was Palandra of Elliot Lake, who collected his first overall, six minutes into the proceedings, after having a couple of attempts while right on top of Cochrane netminder Michael Nickolau.
Countering with the equalizer midway through the first period was Joshua Mizue of the Crunch, as he too picked up his initial league marker after Alexis Clement found Jake Alton driving hard to the net, who in turn dished off a perfect feed, which allowed for an easy redirection into the open corner.
The Red Wings regained the lead 6:32 into the second stanza when Charlie Wesholowski was set-up nicely from behind the net by affiliate Ryan Daponte, who picked up his first NOJHL point.
Going up by a pair six minutes later, Elliot Lake captain Brock McNaughton banked one in from the right side to pick up his 10th of the campaign.
Pulling back to within one with a late man advantage effort, Cochrane made it 3-2 after two thanks to Ryan Matthews unleashing a wicked wrister from the high slot that flew past Red Wings’ goalkeeper Colton Donaldson at 19:19.
Early in the third, the home side went back up by two as Palandra potted his second of the contest as his low shot from the right face-off circle found its way under the pad of Nickolau.
Adding to their cushion with seven and a half minutes to play, Elliot Lake’s Silas Crawford wheeled around the back of the goal and put a back hand in front that was quickly swatted in by Kjell Osborne.
They then finished off the home-ice victory as McNaughton picked up his second of the match-up as he powered his way across the front of the net and calmly tucked one in on the opposite side to round out the scoring.
Getting the win was Donaldson, his third of the season, while Nickolau, in defeat, faced 50-plus shots for the 17th time on the year.
