Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners got two goals and an assist from Ben Lyons to help lead his side past the Iroquois Falls Storm 5-2 Thursday night in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
The first quality opportunity to open the scoring came 11 minutes into the contest when the Gold Miners’ Nathan Harper picked off a play at his own blueline and raced in alone on a breakaway only to see Storm netminder Caleb Shuker flash the leather and make a solid glove save.
Iroquois Falls later converted on a five-on-three when defenceman Noah Logan fired a shot towards the target from the left point that hit off teammate Landon Gallaher and got by Kirkland Lake goalkeeper Morgan Hyndman at 15:15.
Pulling even with a man advantage effort of their own, Lyons batted in a puck out of the air from the side of Shuker that had hit high off the end glass and bounced back in front after a Harper attempt had been blocked.
With the second assist on the tally, Yosef Pievsky extended a point streak to six games in succession.
Still tied into the middle stanza, Kirkland Lake went in front when Brady Baun darted down the left wing with speed before moving into the circle and ripping in his first NOJHL goal into the top far corner of the net.
Building on that, Jacob Demers made it 3-1 Miners as he took a pass from Magnus Veldman and from a sharp angle, sent a play to the net that hit off the skate of a Storm player in close and changed direction before sliding under the pad of Shuker.
In collecting the helper, Veldman is now on an eight-game point heater.
Tacking on some insurance past the midway point of the third period, the Gold Miners Mavrick Boucher took a down-low feed from Lyons and quickly snapped it in.
Getting one back, a Gallaher cross-ice pass over to Emmett Schipprack sent him in between the Kirkland Lake defence where he made a quick deke to his right and tucked the puck past the outstretched pad of Hyndman and the post.
The visitors got their goaltender out late for an additional skater in an effort to move closer, but Lyons iced it with an empty net effort in the final minute to close out the victory.
Continuing their torrid start to the season, league-leading Kirkland Lake have now won five contests in a row while improving to 13-2-1-0 overall.
They’ll close out their month Friday night in Timmins against the Rock at McIntyre Arena.
The Storm, who drop to 5-8-1-0 with the setback, are also back at it Friday evening as they host the Blind River Beavers at Jus Jordan Arena.
