NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA RELEASE
Release Date: Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012
Trappers move into first, Eskimos win high-scoring affair
SUDBURY – A couple of exciting games in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Saturday night saw the North Bay Trappers move into top spot in the standings with a dramatic overtime victory over the Blind River Beavers while the Abitibi Eskimos outscored the Sudbury Nickel Barons in the other.
NORTH BAY TRAPPERS 5 BLIND RIVER BEAVERS 4 (OT) – Samuel Blanchet’s goal 33 seconds into overtime allowed North Bay to pull it out after giving up the tying marker late in regulation.
Blind River stormed out to a 2-0 lead after one period of play courtesy of efforts by Zach Pease and Scott Marshall.
The Trappers responded in the middle frame to level the proceedings thanks to Justin Schneeberger and Carter Horwitz only to see the Beavers go back on top after 40 minutes with a Fraser Atkinson tally at 11:55 of the stanza.
Stephen Langford notched the equalizer, on the power play, with 7:05 remaining and Duane Wainman’s man advantage marker with 2:50 to go gave North Bay their first lead.
Blind River battled back to force OT thanks to Corey McEwen scoring with just one second remaining to send the contest into extra time.
However Blanchet made quick work of it early in OT giving the Trappers the victory and vaulting them into first place in the NOJHL standings, one point ahead of the Soo Thunderbirds, who hold a game in hand.
Dustin Hummel made 37 saves to pick up the win while Aaron Cormier faced 41 attempts in a losing cause.
The Soo host North Bay Sunday in a 3 p.m. matinee at Essar Centre in a showdown for top spot.
ABITIBI ESKIMOS 8 SUDBURY NICKEL BARONS 5 – The hometown Eskimos scored the game’s last five goals, including three in the final period, en route to the come from behind victory over the Nickel Barons.
A good start for the visitors saw Sudbury notch a couple of early tallies by Sebastien Leroux to go up a pair by the three-minute mark of the opening session.
The two sides added five more goals before the opening frame was out with Sudbury holding a 4-3 lead.
Brett Dusick and Andre Comtois had the other two Nickel Baron efforts with Peter Poulin-Roy netting a pair and Richard Thierrien adding one of his own for Abitibi.
After Marco Lizotte put Sudbury up 5-3 9:10 into the second period it was all Eskimos after that.
Philip Sweeney and Brandon Windsor leveled the score before the middle session was complete.
In the third Windsor slammed home the game-winner midway through while Therrien added some insurance and Windsor completed the rally by finishing off a hat-trick in the late going to round out the scoring.
Kevin Walker had a big night for the Eskimos dishing out four assists on the night.
Etienne Roy made 34 saves to register the victory for Abitibi while Alex Laino faced 44 shots in a losing cause in the Sudbury net.
With the triumph the Eskimos improve to 5-10-0-1 while the slumping Nickel Barons fell to 9-8 having gone 1-8 in their past nine outings.
