Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – A tightly-contested Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League match-up Wednesday night saw the Cochrane Crunch pull out a narrow 2-1 triumph over the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
The visiting Crunch were quick to get on the board as Liam Boswell notched his second of the season as he beat Gold Miners’ starter Braydon Garnhart for his second of the campaign, which came at 2:43.
There was more from Cochrane less than four minutes later when Alex Dionne took a feed from Desmond Brazeau and skated in on net where he made a deke to his right and tucked in his first of the season to make it 2-0 and double the guests early edge.
Getting one back before the intermission, some diligent work along the end boards by Alex McDonald worked the puck free to Luca Maiuri, who came out and lifted a shot over the short side shoulder of Crunch netminder Marcus Ouellet while the clubs were skating four aside.
Moving to the middle stanza, the evenly-played session saw neither side find the back of the net as Cochrane carried their slim cushion into the final frame.
It was much the same there as Ouellet and Garnhart held firm defensively for their respective squads as the rest of the game remained without another tally as the Crunch skated away with the slim margin of victory.
Ouellet’s efforts saw him make some big saves and collect his initial NOJHL win with Cochrane raising their record to 2-4-1-1 on the campaign with the result.
As for Garnhart, he too was solid despite the setback as the Gold Miners dropped to 1-6-0-0 overall.
