Photos: Allyson Demers
KIRKLAND, Ont. – The Iroquois Falls Storm had a solid start, then had to withstand a serious pushback by the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners, before eventually picking up a 4-3 win in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Sunday matinee at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
In a chippy beginning to the contest, the Storm opened the scoring 2:45 in while the clubs were skating four aside as Simon Lemieux darted up the ice with speed and went in on the right side and wired a shot past the blocker of Gold Miners’ goalkeeper Brian Rathwell.
Iroquois Falls added to that four minutes later when Benjamin Coupal whipped one through the legs of the Kirkland Lake netminder directly off a draw from a tight angle.
Not done there, Colin Chesnut stuffed in a loose puck laying in the crease during a power play at 11:01 to make it 3-0.
Trimming their deficit to two late in the first period, the Gold Miners broke out of their own zone on a two-on-one where Tysen Anderson opted to shoot while driving down the left wing and snapped his attempt past Iroquois Falls’ Lucas Cardiff-Bilodeau.
In the middle stanza, the home side inched closer five minutes in when Anderson spotted Vaive Hickey in the slot with a pass that he ripped in for his eighth of the campaign.
Kirkland Lake kept coming and drew level at 7:25 when Ben Lyons kept a play in the Storm end and eventually pumped in the equalizer from the slot over the blocker of Cardiff-Bilodeau.
Regaining the lead in the third, Mathieu Ouellette put the Storm back on top as he jammed in the leftovers off a nice drive to the net by Alexandre St. Pierre.
Getting Rathwell out for an additional skater in the final minute, the Gold Miners looked to tie it and send it to overtime.
However, Iroquois Falls held the fort as time expired to collect the road victory.
The win for Cardiff-Bilodeau was his first in the NOJHL after being acquired earlier in the week.
With the result, the Storm improve to 9-17-0-2 and in defeat, the Kirkland Lake dipped to 9-18-0-2.
