NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014
Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie victorious on the road Saturday
SUDBURY – A pair of Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League contests Saturday saw the Sudbury Nickel Barons defeat the Blind River Beavers 4-1 and the Soo Thunderbirds edge the Abitibi Eskimos 3-2 in overtime.
SUDBURY NICKEL BARONS 4 BLIND RIVER BEAVERS 1 – Sudbury stormed out to a 3-0 first period lead as they went on to defeat Beavers at the Blind River Community Centre.
Giovanni Foschia notched the opening two tallies for the Nickel Barons to put them up a pair by the 8:09 mark of the stanza, which spelled an early end to the night of Blind River starter Dylan Knox.
Replacement Jessie Morin was greeted by a Brody Brunet effort with just over six minutes left in the frame to put the visitors up three after 20 minutes.
Sudbury extended their cushion to 4-0 with 19 seconds left in the second thanks to Jimmy Roy, who finished off of work Foschia and Khadyn Butterfly as that pair drew assists on the play.
The Beavers broke Andrew Lefevbre’s shutout bid with 4:38 remaining in the third as Tyson MacLeod scored the long Blind River marker on the night.
Lefevbre finished with 26 saves to record the victory while Knox allowed the two against on eight shots and suffered the loss.
Morin stopped 31 of 33 in almost 52 minutes of relief.
SOO THUNDERBIRDS 3 ABITIBI ESKIMOS 2 (OT) – Eric Hillock’s unassisted goal with 1:17 remaining in the first overtime lifted the Thunderbirds to the road triumph over the Eskimos at Jus Jordan Arena.
Anthony Miller opened the scoring for the Sault 3:25 into the contest before Brenden Locke notched the equalizer for Abitibi midway through the session.
Abitibi took a 2-1 lead after two periods of play as Erik Robichaud connected on the power play 5:50 into the second.
The T-Birds forced extra time with 6:37 left in regulation when Miller buried his second of the night with the tying tally coming while his club was on a man advantage.
That set the stage for Hillock to win it and give the Soo the extra point on the evening.
Joel Horodziejczyk had 28 stops to pick up the win as he has now gone 25-0-1-0 in his past 26 starts for the league-leading Thunderbirds.
Sylvain Miron made 41 saves in net for the Eskimos helping them earn a point in the OT defeat.
NOJHL play continues Sunday with a pair of matinees as Blind River hosts Espanola at 2 p.m. while Sault Ste. Marie will meet North Bay in a game that will be played in Mattawa at 3:30 p.m.
