COCHRANE, Ont. – The Iroquois Falls Eskis jumped out to a three-goal lead and withstood a comeback bid by the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners to earn a 3-2 triumph Friday evening in Game No. 5 of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Polar Bear Classic preseason tournament hosted by the Cochrane Crunch at the Tim Horton Event Centre.
Iroquois Falls got off to a solid start as they went up a pair in the opening 20 minutes on an even strength effort off the stick of Cam Boutin along with a man advantage marker courtesy of David Osborne.
Jack Speer made it 3-0 Eskis 14:14 into the middle stanza before William Mizuik connected for the Gold Miners just over three minutes later.
With the two sides seeing solid goaltending the rest of the way, Speer did manage to score once more in the final seconds of the contest to round out the scoring.
Trevor Hawkes was the busier of the two netminders as the Iroquois Falls goalkeeper faced 45 shots in a winning cause for his club as they improved to 2-1 in the five-team preseason tourney.
Jeff Veitch stopped 35 of the 38 attempts he saw in defeat for the Gold Miners who fell to 0-2.
