Coming off a 4 – 3 win in Elliot Lake Friday night, in the first game of their three game road trip over the Wildcats, the Northern Junior Hockey League East division, 9 – 3 – 1 Kirkland Lake Gold Miners headed across the St. Mary’s River to face the 4 – 8 – 0 – 1 Soo Eagles, in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan at the Pullar Stadium on Saturday evening.
Logan Fredericks put the Gold Miners on the scoreboard first at 15:06 of the opening period to give Kirkland Lake a 1 – 0 lead with his ninth of the season, Jamey Lauzon and Joel Fortin added the assists on Fredericks goal. With the visitors shorthanded, Fortin added his seventh of the season at 16:35 of the first to give the Gold Miners a 2 – 0 lead. Evan Bidenti and Ty Cousineau drew assists on Fortin’s goal. Jake Saxton sent the Eagles into the first intermission just one goal down with 23 seconds left in the first with contributors from Jacob Herrberg and Sam Rappaport.
The Soo’s Chris Hazen beat Gold Miner goaltender Victor-Olivier Courchesne at 4:33 of the second to even the game at 2, Trevor Jestadt and Kendall Huckins registered the assists on Hazen’s tying goal. Scoring his seventh of the season Marc – Antoine Arseneau fires a goal behind Eagles netminder Jake Hickey just past the halfway mark of the second at the 10:02 mark of the second off a pass from Fredericks.
At 14:53 of the middle frame, Bidenti increases the Gold Miners lead to 4 – 2 with assists from Blake Anderson and Dalton Anderson. Arseneau registers his second of the game and eighth on the season with Brayden Stortz and A.J Rupert adding the helpers at 17:01 of the second. Brandon Wolfe set up Stortz for his eleventh on the season and the Gold Miners sixth of the game at 6:48 of the third. Dayton Honkanen scored the final goal of the game at 12:20 of the third period with Nate Harris and Roman Gaudet registering the assists.
With the 6 – 3 win, Kirkland Lake heads into Sunday’s afternoon matinee in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario against the league leading Soo Thunderbirds at 3:00 p.m at the Essar Centre.
