Saturday night, the eleventh place Espanola Express came into Kirkland Lake with a 5 – 22 – 1 record to face the fourth place (19 – 7 – 2 – 1) GoldMiners at the Joe Mavrinac in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League action.
At 3:58 of the first, Brayden Stortz fired his 22nd of the season to give the Gold Miners a 1 – 0 lead with assists from Logan Fredericks and Alex Hester. Joel Grandboise notched the tying goal at 7:25 on a Express power play, beating Gold Miner rookie goaltender Tyler Mazzocato, Mitchal Payette and Patrick Smith added the contributors on Grandboise goal. Espanola then went out in front 2 – 1 with Grandboise’s 2nd of the night at 12:10 of the first , from Dominik Lavergne. Logan Fredericks added his 18th of the season to even the game 2 – 2 at 13:22 of the first with Stortz and Hester drawing the helpers.
Burying his 17th of the season, beating Express netminder Aaron Callan was forward Marc-Antoine Arseneau to give Kirkland Lake a 3 – 2 lead with Dylan Holt and Jesse Houlton adding the assists 29 seconds into the second period. Scoring his second of the game on an unassisted breakaway on Espanola netminder Kevin Labelle, Fredericks made it a 4-2 game at 6:28 of the 2nd.
Closing to within one, 1:09 into the third was Espanola’s Lavergne with a pass from Grandboise. Dalton Anderson set up Kameron Shearer of the Gold Miners at 9:29 of the third to give Kirkland Lake a 5 – 3 lead. Ty Cousineau added his first of the season at 18:16 of the third to give Kirkland Lake a 6 – 3 win over the Express. Arseneau and Houlton had the helpers on Cousineau goal.
“It was good to end the weekend strong by all of us to get the 4 points on the weekend. We had some great goaltending by Mazz and the defence stayed strong. We will continue to contend and not look to far ahead to the break we have coming up,” said Gold Miner Logan Fredericks.
With the win, the Miners winning streak is now at 4. The Miners don’t play at home again till Friday, Jan 8th vs Iroquois Falls, with the Soo Thunderbirds coming to town the next night, Sat, Jan 9th.
Kirkland Lake will now pack their bags for a December 16th East division match – up at the McIntyre Arena in Timmins against the Rock for a 7:30 p.m start.
The 3 Stars tonight were, #3 Brayden Stortz, #2 Espanola’s Joel Grandbois & the 1st Star, Logan Fredericks.
It was Food Bank Night tonight and thanks to you, we have a pickup truck filled with food for the Salvation Army Christmas Hampers!
Our prize winners tonight:
Habs-Sens tickets, Jacob Attwater
Dudley-Hewitt Cup Tournament Pass, Daryl Brohm,
Presidents Choice $50.00 Gift Card, Tanner Mazzocato
& our $25.00 Miners Warehouse Gift Card Winner, BJ Fraser
Once again, Sticktaps for Blaine Clowater at Carlson Wagonlit/Youlten Travel, for the Habs-Sens tickets!
