NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013
Thunderbirds and Trappers post Sunday wins
SUDBURY – A pair of Sunday afternoon matinees in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League saw the Soo Thunderbirds defeat the Blind River Beavers 5-3 while the North Bay Trappers rallied to defeat the Elliot Lake Bobcats 4-3 in overtime.
SOO THUNDERBIRDS 5 BLIND RIVER BEAVERS 3 – Gavin Burbach scored once in each period to help lead the visiting Thunderbirds to the victory at the Blind River Community Centre.
The opening period was scoreless until the final minute when Sault Ste. Marie struck twice late courtesy of markers from Joey Miller and Gavin Burbach 53 seconds apart.
After Burbach made it 3-0 in the middle frame, Blind River responded with tallies from Samuel Wilbur and Jacob Boisvenue to pull within one after 40 minutes.
Anthony Miller made it 4-2 Soo early in the third, but Zach Nadeau trimmed the deficit to one once again with 4:47 to go.
Burbach then iced it in the final seconds finishing off his hat-trick by scoring into an empty net.
Shots on goal in the contest favoured the Thunderbirds by a 28-19 margin win Brian Kment picking up the win and Dylan Knox suffering the loss.
With the win the T-Birds move into a share of top spot in the NOJHL standings with Kirkland Lake as both clubs now sit at 5-1. The Beavers meanwhile fell to 3-3.
NORTH BAY TRAPPERS 4 ELLIOT LAKE BOBCATS 3 – Ryan Deyman scored his second goal of the game, 1:05 into overtime, as North Bay won for a second straight outing.
The lone tally of the opening period came in dramatic fashion as Aviv Milner connected on a penalty shot at 14:05 of the stanza.
Each side found the back of the net in the middle session with the Trappers getting efforts from Deymen to tie it and Zach Turner to give them the lead only to see Elliot Lake respond on goals by Brett Wagner and Milner’s second of the afternoon to put the Bobcats up 3-2 after 40 minutes.
North Bay would force extra time with just under 12 minutes remaining as team captain Jake Staples notched the equalizer at 8:05.
With the man advantage heading into OT and the sides going four skaters against three Demyen buried the winner helping the Trappers to extend their modest winning streak to two while also picking up five of a possible six points in their past three outings.
Rookie netminder Evan Cormier was solid making 41 saves to register his first NOJHL victory as he helped his side improve to 2-4-0-1 on the season.
Shaun Gerbinski faced 27 shots in a losing cause as the Bobcats earned a point as they wrapped-up a three-game weekend road swing that saw them go 1-1-0-1 and going to 2-2-0-2 overall.
League play resumes Wednesday as Sudbury hosts Espanola in a 7:30 p.m. start at McClelland Arena.
