NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Friday, Dec. 9, 2016
Wildcats strike twice in 3rd to defeat Eagles 4-2
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Elliot Lake Wildcats broke open a tie game in the third period thanks to the game-winner from William Bucsis with 11:19 to play and then added another late, with an empty netter, to defeat the Soo Eagles 4-2 Friday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at Pullar Stadium.
Elliot Lake opened the scoring four and a half minutes into the contest on Carson Andreoli’s fifth of the season.
Sault Ste. Marie came back with the equalizer at 17:21 of the first thanks to Chris Murphy, who collected his 17th goal of 2016-17.
However the Wildcats regained the lead with 25 seconds left in the session on a Brett Crook effort.
The Eagles came back to pull even with the lone marker of the second stanza as Jacob Palmerio tied it at 3:43, notching his 14th of the campaign.
It stayed 2-2 until Bucsis supplied the difference maker for the visitors at 8:41 of the third.
Mark Caruana then secured the victory for Elliot Lake as he scored with Soo goaltender Kade Phipps on the bench in favour of an extra attacker to round things out.
Justin Richer was solid maing 38 stops to pick up the win for the Wildcats while Phipps saved 29 of 32 in the setback for the Eagles.
