Strong finish leads Kirkland Lake over Cochrane

COCHRANE, Ont. – A four-goal third period surge broke open a tie game as the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners went on to defeat the Cochrane Crunch 5-1 Friday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at Tim Horton Events Centre.

The match-up was tightly contested throughout the first half of the game, including a scoreless opening frame.

They went without a goal well into the second stanza as well before Kirkland Lake’s Connor Van Weelie broke the deadlock at 15:34 with his 16th marker of the season.

Cochrane answered though before the period was up when Dakota Seaman supplied the equalizer at 18:37 to send the sides to the intermission knotted at 1-1.

The final session was all Gold Miners though as they found the back of the net on four occasions to secure the road victory.

Jacob Hiltz, via the power play, provided the eventual game-winner at 3:03 to give the guests the lead back for good.

After Robert McLaughlin made it 3-1 Kirkland Lake just over three minutes later, he helped set-up Van Wellie for his second of the night at 16:18.

They then capped off their offensive outburst in the final moments with Camille Marcoux rounding out the night’s scoring.

Van Weelie, McLaughlin and Cameron Neaylon all finished with three points each in the road triumph.

Kyle McNair made 25 saves to record the win for the Gold Miners while Crunch starter Tomi Gagnon saw 32 shots against in suffering the loss.