KIRKLAND LAKE – The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners rode the strength on a two-goal, four assist performance from Ryan Swain along with a hat trick and a helper from Steven Babin to defeat the Abitibi Eskimos 9-4 Tuesday evening in Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League play at the Joe Mavrinac Community Complex.
Each side would tally once in the opening frame with Babin striking first for the Gold Miners at 4:47 followed by Abitibi’s Kyle Levis 80 seconds later.
The middle session saw the Kirkland Lake outscore the Eskimos 4-2 Babin, Swain and newcomer Bryan Lubin tacking on a pair while Patrick Picard and Brady Clouthier countered for the visitors.
The Gold Miners then put the game away in the final stanza adding four more markers.
After Babin finished off his three-goal night in the first minute of the third, Ethan Strong, Connor Thie and Swain added later efforts to make it 9-3.
Clouthier added one more for the Eskimos late to round out the scoring.
Strong, Thie and Lubin all finished with three points apiece on the night with Thie extending a consecutive game point streak to 11 in the process.
Devon Debastos made 22 saves to record the win for the Gold Miners while Logan Ferrington faced 42 shots in defeat for Abitibi.
