NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
NOJHL MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014
Gold Miners crown Crunch
COCHRANE – The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners jumped out to an early lead and never trailed en route to a 5-1 win over the Cochrane Crunch Sunday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up at the Tim Horton Event Centre.
The Gold Miners notched a pair of quick tallies just 15 seconds apart in the opening period supplied by Ryan Aubertin and Dylan Rosen.
Steven Babin had one of the assists on the Aubertin marker to extend a consecutive game point streak to 11.
Aubertin’s second of the contest 7:17 into the middle stanza extended the Gold Miners lead as he notched his sixth goal in seven outings since the 20-year-old Hearst product joined the club from Humboldt of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey Club.
Cochrane got on the board 1:16 into the third courtesy of Jason Berube’s 10th of the campaign to make it interesting only to see Kirkland Lake’s Charles Bruneau-Crete find the back of the net midway through frame.
A Connor Thie power play goal at 13:33 then capped off the scoring in the contest.
The Gold Miners got two assists apiece from Babin, Zach Pease and Ryan Swain to aid their offensive cause.
Shots on goal favoured the Crunch 37-33 with Josh Erickson picking up the victory and Ben Auger the loss.
With the result Kirkland Lake moved back into first place in the NOJHL standings with 35 points on 17 wins, three losses and one overtime setback.
That put then once point ahead of the idle 16-2-0-2 Soo Thunderbirds, who do hold one game in hand.
In defeat Cochrane slipped to 13-8-0-1.
League play resumes Wednesday as the Thunderbirds travel to Greater Sudbury to tangle with the Sudbury Nickel Barons in a 7:30 p.m. start at McClelland Arena.
