NEWS RELEASE
NOJHL NETWORK MEDIA
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KIRKLAND LAKE – The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners saw Jesse Dupuis score three times to help them defeat the Elliot Lake Vikings 6-4 Sunday in a Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee at Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
The opening 20 minutes saw Kirkland Lake hold the edge in shots, but each team scored once heading into the intermission.
Notching the day’s initial tally was the Gold Miners’ Dupuis, who clicked on the power play at 16:24, as he banged in a rebound off a Joseph Bastien-Picard attempt from the right side.
Countering a couple of shifts later, Elliot Lake’s Nathan Marincola tied it after taking a Ryan Daponte feed, then fired a quick shot over the glove of goalkeeper Braydon Garnhart.
Regaining the lead early in the second stanza, Cole Ellis whipped a rising shot from the left circle into the top corner on Vikings’ netminder Matthew Vahramian, who couldn’t quite steady himself after getting knocked down in his crease.
Adding his second extra-man marker of the contest, Dupuis quickly unleashed a cross-ice pass from Bastien Picard to make it 3-1 at 6:26.
The home side then went up by three late in the frame off a shot block that allowed Noah Woodard to dart down the ice on a shorthanded break where he put his attempt through the Elliot Lake goaltender at 17:29.
In the third, the Vikings got closer, while up a skater, at 11:15 when Max Ciesielski potted his first NOJHL goal by putting one through a crowd from up top that hit off the post and in.
Countering quickly though, Inde Abresch made it 5-2 just 18 seconds later as he took a Bastien-Picard back pass and wristed it in from the left circle.
Replying to that under a minute later, the visitors’ Noad Aboflan drove hard down the right wing and snapped a shot into the bottom left corner.
It was more from Aboflan at 15:57, as he connected while his club had a player in the penalty box, after Ciesielski sent a rising flip pass that he chased down while flying in alone and smartly buried his opportunity.
Pressing to tie it late, Elliot Lake got their goalie out for an extra attacker, but Dupuis answered that by completing his three-goal game by collecting a neutral zone giveaway and sliding it into the empty net to secure the home ice triumph.
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