Photos: Rod Turnbull
IROQUOIS FALLS, Ont. – Buoyed by a Jack Jarvis hat trick, the Iroquois Falls Storm skated to an important 5-3 win over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners Saturday in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at Jus Jordan Arena.
The victory moves Iroquois Falls into the eighth and final playoff spot, with a week to go in the regular season, a point ahead of the idle Espanola Paper Kings, who have played one more game.
Reaching the 20-goal plateau on the campaign, Jordan Mayo put the Storm in front, 9:08 as he moved the slot on a power play and ripped a shot past Gold Miners’ goalkeeper Mason Janicki.
Jarvis then joined Mayo with 20 markers as he raced in alone on a breakaway, then cut to his right and lifted in a backhand.
Extending their edge in the second stanza, Jarvis converted again, this time by taking a Mayo cross-crease feed and pumping it upstairs from the right side.
Going up by four, Mayo finished off a Lucas Peever set-up at 12:59.
Answering that less than a minute later, Inde Abresch put the Gold Miners’ board by potting his 10th of the campaign, in eluding the Storm’s Maverick Fletcher.
Kirkland Lake then clicked on a man advantage thanks to Jeremy Schoenborn who did a slight toe drag in the slot after being spotted by Abresch and snapping it in to make it a 4-2 game after 40 minutes.
Action in the final frame saw Jarvis strike once more as he neatly chipped a Mayo pass upstairs, 47 seconds in, for his initial NOJHL three-goal effort.
Alexander Sackett got one more for the Gold Miners five minutes later by finishing off an Abresch set-up from between the circles.
They would get no closer however as the home side picked up the key triumph.
The two sides cap-off a weekend home-and-home Sunday, over in Kirkland Lake at 4 p.m.
