NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015
Thunderbirds thump Crunch skating to 6th straight win
SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – A four-goal second period allowed the Soo Thunderbirds to break a 1-1 tie as they went on the thump the Cochrane Crunch 7-1 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee Sunday afternoon at Essar Centre.
With both clubs entering the contest with identical 10-1 records, each side would find the back of the net early in the first period in this one.
Cochrane’s Tyler Minoletti connected on the power play at 2:16 while Sault Ste. Marie’s Andrew Barbeau had an even strength effort just under two minutes later for his first goal of the season to knot the affair at 1-1 through the opening stanza.
Special teams allowed the Thunderbirds to grab a 3-1 lead in the middle frame when Darian Pilon and Jaren Bellini notched power play markers 29 seconds apart.
The T-Birds kept coming in the session and went up by three as captain Brett Jeffries notched his fourth at 11:58 as he buried a feed from Caleb Boman.
Three minutes later while shorthanded, Sault Ste. Marie struck again with Matthew Mitchell doing the work with an unassisted effort.
The Thunderbirds kept coming in the third putting the game out of reach as Jeffries and Mark Tassone scrored less than a minute apart, spelling an end to Crunch starter Brett Young’s day in favour of Kurtis David who went the rest of the way for Cochrane.
Boman finished with three assists on the afternoon for the home side while Barbeau had two helpers to aid the offensive cause.
Nathan Warren made 25 stops to record his seventh win of the campaign, tying Brett Young of the Crunch for the league-lead.
Young faced 39 shots in suffering the loss as his record dipped to 7-2 while Cochrane went to 10-2 overall.
David handled all three attempts he faced in 16:36 of relief.
