Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND LAKE, Ont. – A Tysen Andersen tally seven seconds into overtime was the difference as the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners withstood a comeback bid by the Iroquois Falls Storm before prevailing 4-3 in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League meeting at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
A fortunate bounce on a dump in, right off the opening faceoff, saw it hit a skate and skip right to an open Lucas Dubois who quickly snapped a shot past Storm starter Caleb Shuker 10 seconds into the contest.
More from Kirkland Lake at 11:30, Lex Lamontagne, parked in front, made it 2-0 when he tipped in a shot put to the net from the left side by Ben Lyons.
Iroquois Falls got one back just before the intermission thanks to Emmett Schipprack at 19:48 as he took a cross-ice pass in the right circle from Mateo Moro and wired it past goalkeeper Morgan Hyndman.
In the middle stanza, the Gold Miners restored their two-goal cushion when Gannon Neill collected his first NOJHL marker by putting one top shelf, from between the circles, at 11:07.
Another late effort in the second saw the guests pull to within one once more compliments of Moro’s first in the league at 19:23 when he picked the corner on Hyndman through a screen.
Heading to the third period, the Storm pulled even with 3:18 to go as Felix Tremblay finished off a pass from down low off the stick of Arthur Seamus-McCown to help send it to OT.
Right off the draw in the additional session, Kirkland Lake’s Owen O’Grady pushed the play ahead, which allowed Anderson to race in, then cut right-to-left before tucking in the game-winner in dramatic fashion to end it.
